Lighting

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USA - Bandit Lites wrapped its final festival for the summer with two weekends at the Austin City Limits Music Festival, where beautiful weather under the big Texas sky in Zilker Park was the setting to more than 130 acts.

Bandit worked with C3 Presents to provide the festival lighting package for two of the main stages, giving headliners such as LCD Soundsystem, Mumford and Sons and Kendrick Lamar the flexibility and versatility to seamlessly blend in their own touring looks.

Seth Jackson, who is in his fourth year of designing the festival rigs for ACL, collaborated with the headlining artists in a three-fold process, by first providing a large enough rig to fit on the scale of the large roof structures. "Second, you need to provide familiar and varied fixtures," he continued. "Most of the LDs coming in have existing show files. You need a rig that allows them to clone o

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UK - A LED lighting installation - specified and undertaken by Penn Elcom - is saving the White Rock Theatre in Hastings approximately 75 per cent on electricity requirements, plus a further 70 per cent on maintenance costs per year compared to the previous lighting scheme.

The seafront located theatre, a historically significant cultural landmark in the East Sussex region with origins dating back to 1927, is a busy receiving house owned by Hastings Borough Council with the day to day running and management undertaken by HQ Theatres & Hospitality, offering a diverse programme of touring shows embracing many performance genres, including opera, ballet, musicals, comedy and children's shows. The main auditorium capacity is 1066 (referring to the Battle of Hastings!).

A building wide upgrade to LED lighting has been taking place over the last 18 months explained Adam Harkin,

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Belgium - The producers of the new Belgian CAZ TV promoted their new channel with a reality show-like boxing gala that pitted celebrities against one another. Providing hard-hitting visuals for this televised event was a collection of Nexus and COLORdash fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

Belgian rental specialists Splendit supplied 24 Nexus Aw 7x7panels, 72 COLORdash Accent Quad fixtures and 48 Nexus Aq 5x5 panels that were used by designer company Never Fear Shadows to create a visually stunning look.

Forming a key central point to the entire gala setting, the Nexus 5x5 panels were fixed above the central boxing ring, where the classic look of the fixtures recreated the look and atmosphere of classic stadium boxing match events.

One of the key aspects of the Nexus to feature in the design were the vibrant colours of the COB LEDs, which reflected and reinforced the u

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USA - The outdoor festival season in the U.S. extends well into the fall with festivals such as Life is Beautiful in Las Vegas - now in its fourth season - emerging as a highlight of the EDM festival calendar. Promotional events company Insomniac again joined forces with Life Is Beautiful and top lighting designer Steve Lieberman of SJ Lighting to bring the fan-favourite Troubadour Stage alive, which took over Downtown Las Vegas from September 23-25.

Lieberman, who worked with the three-day music, art, culinary and learning festival for the second year, handled lighting design duties on the high-energy Troubadour Stage, where artists like Bassnectar and ZHU drew huge crowds. Standing 120ft wide and 240ft long, the domed Troubadour Stage took fans on a multisensory journey with the latest in lighting and video production hanging from a towering ceiling. Production for the event

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Bat Out of Hell - The Jim Steinman musical Bat Out of Hell will receive its world premiere in the UK next summer at the London Coliseum. Featuring a book by Steinman and Stuart Beattie, with music and lyrics by Steinman, the musical includes songs such as I Would Do Anything for Love and Bat Out of Hell.

Old Gold - Elvis Presley has overtaken Madonna to claim the most number one albums by a solo artist. The Wonder Of You features Elvis' voice above an orchestral score performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It sold 63,500 copies after being released last week. Elvis' number one albums also span the longest period of time by the same artist. There are 60 years between his first - Elvis Presley Rock N' Roll in 1956 - and this latest release. It comes almost 40 years since he died in August 1977.

Speechless - Bob Dylan s

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UK - The Laser Grafix UK team has welcomed a familiar face back to the family, Richard Hawkins. After training as an aircraft engineer, Richard joined Laser Grafix in 1994 working his way up from the hire department to the technical sales department and eventually as the event production manager, when he left in 2004.

In his absence from the Laser Grafix family, Richard Hawkins mentions, "I have kept in touch with the fascinating change in laser products and equipment in the past years. Long gone are the days of very heavy, power and water hungry equipment to produce just a few watts of laser light; where now you can get huge amounts of power from something no larger than a briefcase."

In Richard's 22 years in the industry, he has been involved with numerous high calibre events such as managing the technical production for the inauguration of the Shard in London. The proje

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USA - The COLORado 3 Solo from Chauvet Professional fills a wide range of roles in a lighting designer's tool chest, thanks in part to its impressively wide (8? to 45?) zoom range. The intense output from its three 40W RGBW engines, along with its full IP65-rated power and DMX connections, add even more to this LED fixture's versatility.

"We developed the COLORado 3 Solo with the idea of offering our customers an affordable fixture that can perform multiple functions very well," said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet. "This fixture is equally effective as an arena stage wash as it is for close-up camera work, because of its wide, smooth and very fast zoom range. Also, because it is IP rated, it can be used indoors or out."

The advanced zooming optics designed into the COLORado 3 Solo allow its three high-output LED engines to produce a single homogenized beam. This output, co

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UK - Midas provided all the power as Vevo Halloween hit Bramley-Moore Dock, Liverpool on 29 October, for 3,400 ticketholders and millions of others via the video hosting service's website.

Set in a dockside warehouse, with the stage in an adjoining temporary structure, the 12,000sq.m site was painstakingly dressed to the theme 'Phobias', which was reflected in the fans', and the bands', fancy dress.

Ipswich-based Midas supplied a turnkey power generation, mains cabling and distro solution. It included a pair of synched 500 kVAs for performances from Aurora, Blossoms, Izzy Bizu, Jack Garrett and Zara Larson, together with a 220 and a 116 kVA for production, across the five-day build and the show.

Dave Noble, Midas' managing director, said, "Broadcast was equally important, so Vevo Halloween was much more than a straight-ahead gig. On a wet and windy dock, with a whole l

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Ireland - EPIC Ireland is the first digital-only museum in the world, featuring 20 multi-media galleries where visitors are immersed in the history of the Irish Diaspora, through Epson's state of the art projector technology and a range of other unique AV installations. Located in the brick vaults of The CHQ building in Dublin's Docklands, EPIC Ireland is a dramatic interactive visitor experience, showcasing the unique journey of Irish people around the world.

Working with Epson and Rockbrook Engineering, one of Ireland's largest systems integration firms, EPIC Ireland has installed 33 EB-G6970WU installation projectors which enable visitors to have a truly immersive experience in the museum. The projectors are a powerful 6,000-lumen WUXGA installation projector with 3LCD technology, and have been used to create impactful displays of each theme of the exhibition in superior cl

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UK - Brought in as part of the Pinewood MBS Lighting ongoing investment across an array of new equipment, the company's sizable collection of super bright ARRI SkyPanel LED softlights recently made a brief return to their Pinewood base, only to be prepped ready for immediate despatch.

Proven as a popular choice with both cinematographers and crew, PMBS have over the past few months provided the low energy panels to an impressive roster of clients, including: Greig Fraser ASC and Gaffer David Smith on Rogue One, Steve Yedlin ASC and Gaffer Jamie Mills, on Episode VIII, Ben Seresin ASC, BSC and gaffer Pat Sweeney on The Mummy, Paul Cameron ASC and gaffer Mark Clayton on The Commuter, Seamus McGarvey BSC and gaffer Lee Walters on Life.

As rental specialists, the PMBS team are well versed in the importance of preparation and maintenance. To c

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USA - National Geographic Channel unveiled Experience Mars, a first-of-its-kind immersive activation, for "recruits" to experience Mars with TAIT's cable coaster virtual reality simulator.

Between 26-29October, the corner of Canal and Varick streets in New York City was bustling with space enthusiasts, virtual reality bloggers, media influencers and experience seekers vying for a spot to land on Mars. Once inside the Mars Experience, recruits climbed aboard the cable coaster virtual reality simulator and traversed the landscape of Mars prior to officially touching down.

"The cable coaster is a 6 degree of freedom rig which means it creates dynamic movement well beyond a traditional 3 degree rig. The Traditional 3 D rigs have three axes of motion: Up/Down, Left/Right, Backwards/Forwards. With our 6 degree of freedom rig, we take the same axes of motion from a

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Poland - The Old Town in the northern Polish city of Toru? escaped the ravages of war in the last century and remains a Medieval jewel of architecture worthy of a place among UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Yet the design of the Jordanki Cultural & Congress Centre (CKK) that sits in the very centre of the Old Town is the very antipathy of Medieval magnificence.

Boldly modernist, angular and with a singular beauty of its own, the CKK is the work of Spanish architect Fernando Menis and provides a multipurpose cultural hub for the city and its surrounds. By its completion in 2015 the centre boasted two concert halls, a cinema, conference rooms, rehearsal spaces, a restaurant, press room and underground parking.

Konsbud Audio of Warsaw was the distributor and executor of all the electroacoustics systems that were installed in the CKK. Along with the installation of FoH control, d

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USA - Daniel Adair has always had a passion for music. As the drummer and backup vocalist for the mega-successful rock band Nickelback, Adair has had the privilege of showcasing his remarkable talents to fans all over the world. Being a singing drummer can be challenging, and delivering pristine vocals that aren't drowned out by his drumming is extremely important to Adair. In order to achieve a superior level of audio quality and make that connection with his fans, he has come to rely on DPA Microphones' d:fine 88 Directional Headset Microphone.

For the last 15 years, Adair has been singing backup vocals, and over the past couple of years has been experiencing pain in his hips and lower back, translating into a noticeable decline in his drumming skills. After seeing a physiotherapist, he discovered the loss in technique was just incorrect positioning of his body. The results

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The Netherlands - Morning Blossoms is a new musical produced by ODD Continent, fusing the disciplines of opera, ballet, dance, music and drama in a compelling performance about parents, children, families and communities separated by natural disasters.

World premiered at The Spiegel Theatre in Zwolle, Netherlands, the action starts on 10 March 2011, the day before the earthquake off the Pacific coast of T?hoku which triggered devastating tsunami waves up to 40m high sweeping up to 10 Kilometres inland, annihilating large areas of Japan's East Coast and claiming over 15,000 lives.

Acclaimed international lighting designer Yaron Abulafia was an integral part of the talented creative team who have helped deliver the piece directed by Malcolm Rock, and he chose an all Robe lighting rig to help sculpt the drama and the intense range of emotional, atmospheric and location

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USA - City Theatrical introduced new technology during LDI 2016, in Las Vegas last week.

SHoW DMX Multiverse provides "unprecedented levels of wireless DMX data transmission in a tiny package", for the first time, allowing the realistic possibility of a professional quality wireless DMX chip in every DMX device. The SHoW DMX Multiverse chip is tiny, low in cost, and has the ability to carry multiple universes of DMX data (as many as five universes in a 2.4GHz transceiver or four universes in a 900MHz transceiver), along with full duplex wireless RDM, and the ability to combine DMX slots from any streaming ACN universe into any of the broadcast universes.

DMXcat is a device used to control, analyse, and test DMX lighting gear. The system combines a small hardware dongle connected by a wireless connection to a suite of Android or IPhone apps. Drawing on a built-in database o

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USA - The group World Classic Rockers is made up of musicians who were involved in recording platinum hits, like former Journey and David Bowie drummer Aynsley Dunbar, singer Fran Cosmo from Boston, Greg Walker of Santana fame, and two members of the Born To Be Wild quintet Steppenwolf.

Collectively, the group brings an extra level of juice that comes from "having been there" when they take the stage. This was readily apparent when they performed recently at the Corona Ranch and Rodeo Grounds outside Phoenix. Keeping pace with their high-octane performance was a searing nonstop lightshow created by John Garberson, using a collection of fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

Garberson, owner of Creative BackStage, used a collection of 24 Rogue R2 washes, eight Maverick MK2 Spots and four STRIKE 4 multi formatted warm white LED fixtures to turn the Stageline 260 stage at

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USA - PixelFLEX has announced the appointment of Jon Chavez to the position of senior project manager. As part of the technical sales team, Chavez will assist clients with the successful application and implementation of the award-winning line of PixelFLEX LED video display technologies into video designs across multiple industries.

"In response to the growing interest in our complete line of LED video solutions, we are very excited to continue the growth of the PixelFLEX project management division," said Monty Rains, president and COO. "Capitalizing on his vast industry experience, Jon joins our team of talented project managers with a special focus on LED video design and event execution for our clients working in a number of different industries."

As a graduate of Full Sail University, Chavez started his career as a freelance lighting designer, and has since held posit

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UK - Moving lighting specialist Richard Martin Lighting have been whipping up culinary absurdities in new spoof cookery chat show Harry's Hill's Tea Time supporting lighting designer Martin Kempton.

As with TV Burp that ended in 2012, Tea Time is sprinkled with all hallmarks you would expect from the mind of Harry Hill. In each episode Harry is joined by a celebrity guest to assist him in the kitchen as he presents a master class in classics such as chicken a la Tom Jones and sponge finger prison. In between such gastronomic delights, there are the TV clips from the celebrities past tossed with the usual Harry Hill flair as well as inane games and celebrity impersonations.

The first episode was a smorgasbord of comedy and farce featuring Paul Hollywood, who joined Harry for Greek Night. In between BGT favourites Stavros Flatley dancing in to music from

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UK - HSL supplied lighting for the popular Bill Kenwright touring production of Save The Last Dance For Me, a rousing 'juke-box musical' by Laurence Marks & Maurice Gran, with some serious and deeper cultural undercurrents accompanying the infectiously catchy vintage bubble-gum pop of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman - one of the 1960's most successful hit-writing partnerships.

Lighting was designed by Tim Oliver, who balanced the diverse requirements of candy pop, theatre and drama as the story of love juxtaposed with cultural values and differences plays out, complete with a full live band who brought a richness and resonance to the piece which has just concluded a six-month UK tour.

HSL's project manager John Slevin commented, "It's a pleasure working with Tim and the BKL team on another great musical. We had a good efficient prep at HSL and the tour ran smoothly right

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USA - It was country music's biggest night, as the CMA Awards celebrated 50 years of honouring the best of country music which included long time Bandit Lites clients Garth Brooks, Carrie Underwood, Little Big Town and Thomas Rhett.

Garth Brooks' triumphant 2016 was capped off with the highest honours of the night as he was crowned Entertainer of the Year for the fifth time, the last being nearly 20 years ago. Bandit has served as Garth's lighting vendor since the beginning in 1988 and provides the lighting for Brooks' monumental tour, which has been smashing records including 5m tickets sold in two and a half years.

The country star shows no signs of letting up as he was recently awarded his seventh Diamond Award from the RIAA for having seven albums sell more than 10m units, the only artist to do so and surpassing The Beatles. Additionally, Garth launched his own Sirius

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Ireland - Critically acclaimed Irish singer-composer James Vincent McMorrow's kicked off his We Move world tour in Dublin on 7 October. Central to the set designed by Conor Jacob are Solaris Mozart RGB LED fixtures. The tour includes the UK, Europe, Canada, and the US, closing 1 December at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.

Five towers of nine Mozarts each, arrayed in 3x3 clusters serve as individually controlled backdrops for band members and also combine for a canvas of content and special effects. "The whole show is built around them," explains tour LD Conor Jacob. "They travel easy, are robust, IP rated, very versatile, and easily manipulated as a light fixture and for content output.

"We're merging five universes of Art-Net DMX control and media server outputs, managed entirely with ProPlex IQ nodes and six Mozart 10-way PSUs. Controlled by an Avolites Tiger Touch I

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USA - For most of the 5,000 or so people who attended Robot-Heart, the event was a cool way to spend Halloween weekend. There was nonstop dancing, crazy costumes, artist like WhoMadeWho, a freaky robot, and a scintillating Dougie Lazer designed lightshow that featured an intense beam and strobe display using Chauvet Professional fixtures.

Those involved in putting on the two-day celebration, however, also saw something beyond the free-flowing party. For them, the event was another step on the way back for the hard-pressed Hunts Point section of the South Bronx.

"Robot-Heart is the first event ever held in this building, which used to be a fertilizer warehouse," said Lazer of DNA Illuminations (New York). "The plan is to turn this place into a permanent event venue, so it can help bring people into this neighbourhood. Being part of something like that definitely added an ex

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USA - The ESTA Control Protocols Plugfest organizers have announced that informal round-table discussions for product developers have been added to the event's programme. Subject matter experts from the Control Protocols Working Group will share their knowledge on RDM Proxy servers, RDM Queued Messages, RDM Status Messages and sACN IGMP support.

The ESTA Control Protocols Plugfest is an educational opportunity for control manufacturers and developers to gather together in person and test their products for interoperability with the latest versions of the CPWG ESTA Control standards. Our goal is to assist you in ensuring that your customer is purchasing products that interoperate and communicate correctly on the same control network.

The scheduled hours are 4:00-11:00pm on Friday, 9:00am-11:00pm on Saturday and Sunday, and 9:00am to noon on Monday. The event is attended by

  1. Lighting up the stage at Aberdeen City campus
  2. BMFLs light tallest tower in Latin America
  3. Chauvet shines at Beyond Pink fundraiser
  4. PARfect solution for Volvo at Landvetter Airport
  5. White Light gets its kit on Full Monty tour
  6. Elation lights World Humanitarian Day Concert
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