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Lighting

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UK - With SpotTrack, the specialist entertainment software tool for making, modifying and maintaining followspot cue sheets, sold on a per-show basis, it provided an immediate measure of the shut down of the entertainment industry across the world last March: all sales stopped.
But equally, it proved a barometer of an industry flickering back to life later in the year, with SpotTrack put to use on a number of the high-profile productions which re-opened for limited runs from the summer on.
At the Troubadour Theatre in Wembley, lighting designer Ken Billington and associate LD Dale Driscoll put SpotTrack to use on Sleepless In Seattle, which had actually loaded in pre-lockdown and was then one of the first shows to get going again once London’s lockdown was lifted. Based on the movie of the same name, the show played a limited but well-received season, helping

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USA - “New Year’s Eve at Lincoln Theatre has become one of our favourite traditions,” alt rockers BIG Something declared when announcing plans for a two-night NYE stand early in December. But during a pandemic, even traditions continued are traditions changed.
This was true for BIG Something as well as the design team that lit their livestream shows. Rather than playing to a full house, the energetic six-piece band, which typically feeds voraciously off crowds, had to perform their NYE concerts in a virtually empty venue.
Their lighting designer for the evenings, Daniel Thibault of Life Is Art Studios, also had to alter his normal way of doing things. Instead of running with the big beams and sweeping aerial effects that they normally favour, he and his team opted to work with more tightly focused wrap around looks that translated better to video.
“Everyb
ISE 2026 - Banner - Oct 2025

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USA - At short notice, Elizabeth Coco eagerly embraced the opportunity to light three concert videos for the First Baptist Church of Glenarden outside Washington DC.
“Every year the church does spectacular Christmas and New Year’s Eve services, but due to COVID they had to reinvent things,” recalled Coco. “We did a series of filming over the course of seven days that included gospel performances from the church, as well as some partnering houses of worship in the area. From this, we created videos for the holidays as well as one for release later in 2021. I really enjoyed the challenge of taking on this project.”
In the process, Coco not only expanded her creative horizons, she also discovered the capabilities of the Chauvet Professional Maverick series, as her “surprise rig” included six MK3 Spot and 12 MK1 Spot fixtures.
“The performance of thes

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USA - Behind the Scenes has announced a generous year-end donation from MA Lighting International which has been a supporter of the charity for many years, through its partnership with the Lightpower Collection. MA Lighting International is responsible for worldwide sales and marketing of grandMA control systems.
MA Lighting international managing director, Stephan Saremba, commented, “In times like these, when donations from companies have declined sharply due to necessity, MA Lighting would like to set an example with direct financial support and once again emphasise the importance of these foundations.”
The Lightpower Collection is a long-time major supporter of Behind the Scenes. Lightpower, founded in 1978 in Germany as a lighting rental company, has grown to be an internationally established distributor for stage and studio lighting equipment. The Lightpower

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Germany - Nearly 500 Astera AX3 LightDrop wireless battery-powered LED fixtures were utilised for a Weihnachtsshow (Christmas Show) special broadcast by popular German singer, dancer and entertainer, Helene Fischer.
Essential elements of the show broadcast on Christmas Day were recorded at the vast Halle 6 of Dusseldorf Messe, complete production lighting designed by award-winning LD, Tim Routledge.
Due to coronavirus restrictions and the relatively short lead-time in which these segments of the show had to be produced, neither Tim nor camera director Paul Dugdale – also based in the UK – could physically be there in person. So, to ensure that the lighting design was installed and ran smoothly, Tim brought German LD Michael Kuehbandner onboard as lighting director to oversee the project in Dusseldorf.
It was Tim’s first design for the artist; however, he ha

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USA - After arguably the toughest year in recent memory, Bayside Church in Granite Bay, California, one of the largest churches in the Sacramento area, wanted to do something special for its congregation this holiday season. As a special holiday gift to the community, Bayside built a Christmas village complete with ice-skating rink, towering Christmas tree and special Christmas light show, a festive holiday experience enhanced using dynamic IP-rated luminaires from Elation Professional.
Alec Takahashi, a former lighting designer and lighting director at the church, was called on to light the project and worked on creative production with the church's creative team, including Bayside creative director Corbin Phillips. Felix Lighting of Southern California supplied all of the lighting gear for the project.
The Christmas experience, which included a 10-minute light show

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Qatar - The Amir Cup Final 2020 Ceremony, the biggest football cup competition in the State of Qatar, and the inauguration Ceremony of Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, the fourth FIFA World Cup stadium to open in Qatar following Khalifa International, Al Janoub and Education City was recently performed using two grandMA3 full-size and multiple MA Network Switches.
Qatar Vision Company developed, produced and managed the inauguration and final, that took place during Qatar National Day and exactly two years before the country hosts the FIFA World Cup final. Mohammad Assaf and Mark Anton were the lighting designers.
Because of strict health and safety protocols, Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium was only allowed to reach approximately 50% capacity. Any fan who attended the match had to return either a positive COVID-19 antibodies test or a negative COVID-19 test prior to being allowed access

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UK - The London skyline again turned into a beacon of blue at 18:00 on Thursday 7 January. Major sporting and entertainment venues, national landmarks and historic buildings across the capital illuminated in a gesture of thanks to the NHS, volunteers and all those on the COVID healthcare frontline.
Heading the list of venues were The O2, London Stadium and Olympic Park, the National Theatre and Madam Tussauds London.
The #LightItBlue campaign has been organised by mental health non-profit organisation Makeitblue CIC, formed last year by members of the live events and entertainment industry.
Tim Owen, Makeitblue director of strategy and engagement said, “With the support of the Mayor of London, we want to light the city blue as a public demonstration of continued support and admiration for all those working under immense pressures to look after COVID and other e

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UK - ON LX Limited has announced the latest release of its bespoke user interface creation tool, Ctrl for iPad. The release features a host of key time-saving and practical features taken directly from user feedback and designed to make configuration and multi-protocol support even faster.
Matt Didon, ON LX’s managing director says: “Our users are the most important part of our product, they heavily drive development and this release was a great opportunity for us to focus on feature requests and meet the changing needs of the industry.”
Alongside the new features and improvements, a new ‘Lite’ license tier has been introduced. ON LX’s James Walton adds: “The motivation behind the Lite tier is to open Ctrl for iPad up to creative applications where full commercial grade interfaces with user permissions and support for HTTP, TCP, UPD and modules simply ar

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USA - The 1,500-seat Marque Theatre was virtually empty, save for a few widely separated family members on hand, when Spafford took to the stage for its 2021 New Year’s Eve livestream. Matt Collier, the jam band’s longtime LD, couldn’t help but contrast the scene to the one he remembered from the band’s last NYE show, when they played before a packed house at Great American Music Hall, more than 750 miles (and a whole world) away in San Francisco.
“What a difference a year makes,” said Collier. “There was less stress than there was last New Year’s Eve, because we played in a virtually empty hall, but I missed the energy of the crowd so much. Just as the band feeds off crowd, I also do as an LD. So, it was a bit of a bummer not to have them there this year.”
Setting his disappointment aside, Collier became completely immersed in the moment once his bus

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USA - When Seattle was forced to adapt its customary New Year’s Eve celebrations due to the ongoing disruption caused by COVID-19; necessity, once again, proved itself to be the mother of invention.
The result - a collaboration between event production company, Modern Enterprises LLC, and projection mapping specialist Maxin10sity - was a revolutionary ‘sky mapping’ show that saw virtual lights, projection, and special effects superimposed on live footage of the city’s leading landmark, the Space Needle, and the sky above.
CEO and founder of Modern Enterprises, Terry Morgan, reports: “I’ve worked with Tamás Vaspöri (managing director at Maxin10sity) for years and have always been so impressed by what we were able to create together; namely the Borealis Festival of Light here in the US, which debuted to a wonderful crowd of over 120,000 people.”
A

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The Netherlands - The increasingly popular EclPanel range from Prolights is making waves in The Netherlands with the help of newly appointed distributor Full AVL. Adding to the list of companies adopting the Italian products are Dutch companies Stagelight (SL), First Impression, Purple Haze and Freek Gerris Stagesupport.
Marcel Bruijns from Stagelight (SL) said, “We have tested a lot of manufacturers who offer a soft-light panel and found Prolights' EclPanel TWC to be the best performing and well-equipped for mobile use in rental companies."
At First Impression, adapting the business for COVID was extremely important: “Due to the pandemic we had to transform our rental department into several streaming studios,” says Ron Haans from the Tilburg-based company. He added: “The EclPanels were the perfect solution for this due to their intuitive use and excellent on-

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UK - Projects Department Ltd (PDL) specified and installed two Zero 88 FLX lighting control consoles, four SCD Servers and a ZerOS Wing for YouTube’s Space London facility in the Kings Cross area of the UK’s capital.
Projects Department, led by Peter Daffern, is an independent company specialising in a wide range of technical services for assorted entertainment lighting industry sectors including broadcast, and is well known for its adaptable and lateral thinking approach.
The three main studios at Space London are available for YouTube’s top creators and influencers - those with 10,000+ subscribers to their channels - to use for content creation and other related endeavours, offering a vibrant community, an imaginative workspace and well-equipped environment to encourage the production of more high-quality material.
When they needed a multifunctional lig

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France - David Guetta played a live New Year’s Eve set at the Musee du Louvre in central Paris.
Celebrating the roll-over from 2020 to 2021 in this special environment, 116 x Robe iPointe moving lights on the rig helped make it impressive. It was also the third in David Guetta’s United at Home concert series to raise money for those in need in what’s been a tough year for everyone.
Director Romain Pissenem’s and his UK and France based creative production company High Scream were also the stream’s executive producers, working directly for the artist and collaborating closely with staff from The Louvre. The 15-camera stream was directed by Job Robbers.
Romain’s team included lighting designer Ian Tomlinson and lighting programmer and operator James Betts Gray.
His starting point for the production design was the 21.6m-high glass and metal

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USA - Following the success of the Element HEXIP outdoor-rated wireless up-lighting fixture, ADJ has introduced the Element HEX IP Chrome model. Offering the formula of 6-in-1 HEX LEDs, a powerful rechargeable battery, WiFLY EXR wireless DMX and an innovative casing design, the new version features a striking chrome housing. This makes it suitable for applications where, instead of blending into the background, lighting fixtures are required to make a bold statement.
The Element HEX IP Chrome is powered by four 10W HEX (RGBWA+UV) LEDs, which generate a consistent colour wash with a 20° beam angle. The 6-in-1 LEDs allow for the creation of a huge palette of colours ranging from vivid saturates to subtle pastels.
In addition to the primary colours of red, green and blue, the inclusion of both white and amber LED elements allows for the generation of a wide variety of co

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USA - Livestream concerts are not just for rock. The Augusta Symphony demonstrated that in spirited fashion recently with its A Little Night of Music, a pay-per-view Friday night show that drew an enthusiastic response from music lovers throughout its market.
Taking place at the historic Miller Theatre in downtown Augusta, the livestream performance followed strict social distancing guideless. A very limited crowd was allowed to buy tickets for the performance in the spacious venue; and there was no intermission during the show to minimize contact. The orchestra itself was reimagined to include a smaller number of musicians on stage, led by music director Dirk Meyer, and featuring principal violinist Anastasia Petrunina, oboist Brian Lyons, and trumpeter Brian Winegardner.
Despite the limited number of musicians, the livestream show encompassed a bold and divers

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UK - Television lighting rental company Version 2 supported lighting director James Tinsley, gaffer Adam Mitchell and the production crew behind the latest run of I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!.
The impact of COVID-19 resulted in a well-publicised relocation of the show, from the Australian jungle of New South Wales to the atmospheric setting of Gwrych Castle in Abergele, North Wales. The combination of a new venue plus the global pandemic presented a multitude of challenges, which the production team overcame to make this 20th season of the show one of the most successful runs yet.
As one of the first UK TV shows to make a full return to regular production, including nightly live broadcasts direct from the location, the IAC team implemented stringent operational guidelines across the board. Alongside this, Version 2 added their own set of carefully

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Europe - A selection of the latest ETC and High End Systems lighting equipment is now available through ETC rental partners with a newly launched programme, ETC Rent.
Jeremy Roberts, regional sales manager for the UK and Sub-Saharan Africa comments: “To help the creative industries get back on their feet, we have introduced ETC Rent in the UK - a programme that will give local venues, hire companies, creative designers and more, access to the very latest ETC and High End Systems lighting equipment via our rental partners.”
ETC Rent includes the new fos/4 Panel lights - designed specifically for the studio and film industry. They deliver intense light output and the highest color quality with the addition of Deep Red LEDs. ETC’s fos/4 Panels come in a Lustr X8 array and Daylight HDR array with different sizes also accessible via ETC Rental Partners.
A range

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USA - The Wonder Years’ November livestream was a homecoming of sorts, not only for the Top 20 alt rockers, but for Victor Zeiser who lit the 90-minute show. “This band is one of our oldest clients, so working with them again was a real thrill,” said Zeiser, the owner of Squeek Lights. “Earlier during the pandemic, the guys did a more-low key livestream at a recording studio, but they decided they wanted to cut loose and do a full production show, so they came here to the Ruby Stage in our new facility.”
Drawing on the versatile rig at the new Ruby Stage (it opened this summer), Zeiser and the Squeek Lights team delivered the dynamic show the band was seeking. Wrapping itself around The Wonder Years’ distinctive sound, the lightshow reflected the mood and spirit of the music with its colourful crossing beam patterns, intense side lighting, and evocative silhouett

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USA - The Holiday Road drive-thru experience in Calabasas, CA features larger-than-life festive displays and millions of Christmas lights arranged throughout a two-mile track, which families can enjoy from the comfort and safety of their own car. ADJ fixtures are used extensively for the theatrical and architectural lighting of the various scenes that make up the experience, with over 300 ADJ 12P HEX IP and 7P HEX IP units spread throughout the attraction.
Holiday Road has been put together by the same creative team - Ben Biscotti, Bobby Rossi and Tony Schubert - that hosts the annual Nights of the Jack Halloween attraction. Originally launched as a walkthrough experience in 2018 and 2019, this year Nights of the Jack pivoted to a drive-thru model so that it could go ahead despite COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings in California.
Following

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USA - Canadian singer producer, The Weeknd, was one of a number of artists performing at unusual outdoor settings in Manhattan to mark the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards.
His designated location was the rooftop of the new Edge observation deck at Hudsons Yard, 387m high, and consequently the highest in the Western Hemisphere. This presented challenges for lighting designer LeRoy Bennett and his long-serving collaborator, Jason Baeri; but with the help of GLP’s X4 Bar 20s, The Weeknd gave a dynamic rendering of Blinding Lights, the song which earned him gongs for Best R&B Video & Video of the Year.
Bennett worked closely with La Mar Taylor, The Weeknd’s creative director, to come up with the concept. GLP’s award-winning battens not only lit the stage platform but also lined the perimeter of the building’s triangular balcony architecturally. Wearing h

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USA - Lighting design bridges gaps, connecting sometimes widely different elements, and fusing them into a unified whole. Jason Patsel of 81 Productions demonstrated this recently at a socially distant outdoor benefit show at the Five Points Music Sanctuary in Roanoke, VA, where he melded different eras and expanded space with help from a collection of Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures.
For the Five Points benefit, Patsel lit a concert by the popular Pink Floyd tribute band Darkside Experience, a quintet that captures the essence of the British band with their evocative and challenging sound. Patsel‘s design reflect the quintet’s music and onstage persona with its bold colours and unsettling light angles.
However, with this being the third decade of the 21st century, and the band including its own contemporary flair in their performance, Patsel also wanted to add

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UK - Born from a disused china clay mine and a need for environmental sustainability education, Cornwall’s Eden Project was created in 2001. Eden has two large geometric bubble-like biomes, the Rainforest and the Mediterranean. The rainforest is the world’s largest indoor rainforest at 50m high and 16,000m2 and the Mediterranean houses some of the world’s rarest horticultural specimens.
For the second year, GLX Productions has designed and delivered the biome lighting for Christmas at Eden, using over 300 lighting fixtures, 3km of cable and 5km of fairy lights.
The dramatic landscapes of the biomes were lit in rich colours to create a compelling world of shadows and light. The crowning centrepiece of the Mediterranean Biome this year is a giant mirror ball casting a blizzard of snowflake-like points of silvery light across the giant structure.
The bi

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UK - Lancashire-based LED lighting manufacturer CFE Lighting has taken on its first apprentice as it looks to accelerate growth and build on its strongest ever trading performance over the last 12 months.
16 year-old Jack Davies has started an 18-month long LEAN Engineering apprenticeship with the company, with the aim of becoming a qualified engineer and securing a permanent role within the rapidly growing business.
Over the course of his apprenticeship, Jack, who lives in nearby Nelson, will be working across a variety of different areas within the company, which specialises in bespoke LED luminaires and lighting solutions for commercial, industrial, and public sectors.
His role will see him work with the manufacturing team to learn how to assemble a vast range of light fittings and controls, as well as being involved with both the sales and customer services te
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