Lighting

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USA - As part of recent updates at FedExForum in Memphis, Bandit Lites, has installed a complement of Claypaky Axcor Beam 300 LED fixtures above the basketball court. FedExForum is home to the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies and the University of Memphis men’s basketball team.
“The intent was to provide the Grizzlies lighting designer with the tools to light more of the arena with new fixtures that were brighter, had larger feature sets and required less maintenance,” explains John Cameron Carter, installation service specialist at Bandit Lites. “With the new fixture install, FedExForum can have bigger and brighter looks for team player intros, timeouts and crowd hype.”
The Axcor Beam 300s are the primary beam fixtures in the install. The LEDs are hung from two catwalks running the length of the basketball court.
“Entertainment lighting has always relied o

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Canada - KISS launched their farewell End of the Road world tour in Vancouver in late January and use a multitude of Elation DARTZ 360 effects as key visuals in the dynamic, multi-sensory show.
More than 40 years on and KISS can still draw a crowd anywhere in the world with their crowd-pleasing hits and, undoubtedly, elaborate live show.
“It’s simple, four-on-the-floor, rock ‘n’ roll music with heavy guitar rifs,” said production designer Sooner Routhier of the music’s continuing appeal. “As far as lighting, it requires an old school light show with simple cuing that accents the music but isn’t overly embellished.” Routhier co-production designed the show with Robert Long, who has been with KISS in various roles for over 20 years. Associate designer/show director is Ashley Zapar.
Routhier and Long, who have served as production designer

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France - Chauvet capped off the first full year of its French subsidiary’s operation with a gala celebration. Over 100 guests attended the festive event, which was held on 21 March at the company’s French headquarters in the south Paris suburb of Chilly-Mazarin. They enjoyed an evening of food and beverages, live entertainment, games and a first-hand look at the company’s latest offerings, including the new additions to its award-winning Maverick and Ovation series of LED fixtures.
“We were excited to welcome so many accomplished guests from the French entertainment lighting industry, very pleased to see their enthusiasm for our new products,” said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet. “Since it was launched in 2018, Chauvet France has established a solid following throughout this market.”
Guests at the event also got to tour Chauvet France’s impressive facil

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Germany - ADB was present at Prolight+Sound 2019 with a large demo and hospitality area where visitors could meet and discover all the new products as well as some classics.
ADB's CEO Simone Capeleto reports: “ADB is traditionally linked closely with the theatre world, where our company has become established over the years with a vast range of lights, lighting controllers and dimming systems. In recent years, we have decided to combine tradition and innovation by enhancing ADB's classic know-how with a range of LED lights equipped with state-of-the-art technology for versatile, high-quality lighting, which is particularly in demand in theatres.
“Today, therefore, we know that our distributors and customers can not only count on our classic catalogue, with long-standing products such as the Warp and the timeless Eurodim dimmers, but also on control desks and LED t

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UAE - MediaPro International LLC recently provided full technical production in Dubai for The Assembly: a Global Teacher Prize Concert, including lighting, audio, processing, backline and control.
The event, which was held at the 15,000-capacity Dubai Media City Ampthitheatre, featured Little Mix, Rita Ora and Liam Payne, with Hugh Jackman as a special guest (along with Loren Allred).
Lighting designer Marno Snyman specified a large number of PR Lighting fixtures in his complex rig, including 42 Phantom 440 and 16 PR XLED 3019. All were taken from the large MediaPro inventory that includes around 100 x PR Phantom 440; 60 x PR XR330 Beam; 60 x PR XLED 3019 and 30 x PR 4022.
Explaining his choice Snyman, who doubled as the event’s lighting programmer and operator, said, “I chose them specifically for their features. Phantom 440 is a true hybrid, producing stron

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USA - When The Commodores appeared at the 39th annual Ostrich Festival in Chandler, AZ, outside Phoenix in March, they didn’t disappoint, treating the large, appreciative crowd to an upbeat, free-flowing show that celebrated the full range of their music. Providing visual support was a Creative BackStage-supplied lightshow that reflected the many facets of the group’s sound by running through a rainbow of colours.
“The Commodores team relied quite a bit on changing colours at this festival, not just to convey the festive mood of the event itself, but to change the atmosphere on stage in support of the music,” said John Garberson of Creative BackStage. “The Commodores’ LD did this for them, and we did the same for the other headliners, Flo Rida and Andy Grammer, as well as all the local bands. There was a lot of great music on stage, and we wanted to give each so

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Australia - The biggest Transmission dance event to date – in terms of audience numbers and Robe moving lights – was staged at Sydney Showground in Australia, where thousands of fans absorbed the music of The Awakening plus visuals courtesy of lighting designer Bas Kemper and the Vision Impossible collective.
Over 200 Robe moving lights - 78 x Pointes, 90 x MegaPointes, 10 x Spiiders, 20 x LEDBeam150s and 19 x BMFL Blades - on the rig ensured that this replicated the seminal moments of the Awakening cycle which started in the O2 Arena in Transmission’s ‘home’ city of Prague, Czech Republic last October and was another memorable visual extravaganza.
Transmission’s originators, United Music, worked closely with local promoters Symbiotic, whose Janette Bishara and Richard McNeil understood the importance of recreating the defining spirit and esse

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) has supplied Vari-Lite VL2600 Profile luminaires to lighting, sound & AV production services company, Limelite Lighting, for use on clients' theatre, concert, TV and corporate events projects in London and the South East.
Limelite Lighting is one of the region's largest providers of full lighting, sound & AV design, installation, and equipment hire services, offering a vast selection of cutting-edge equipment for productions.
After experiencing a massive increase in demand for LED Profile moving lights both for its own project productions and those of its equipment rental customers, Limelite Lighting project manager / director, Matthew Mountier decided to research the best options for fixtures with CYM and shutter capabilities.
After shortlisting several models, Matthew approached Ben Steppenbeck in AC-ET's Li

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USA - Claypaky has announced the opening of its US sales and operation centre. The company will now have a local team of American lighting experts providing a high level of customer service for Claypaky products.
Leading the new team are lighting industry veteran George Masek and Dennis Knopf, former senior sales manager at Osram, the parent company of Claypaky.
“Finally, our American customers can enjoy all the benefits of our direct presence in the United States,” says Pio Nahum, CEO at Claypaky. “We are going to offer them attractive sales options as well as US-based technical support after their purchase. We want to ensure that customers enjoy an exceptional return on their investment through the highest functionality of their equipment.”
“The multi-decade experience of our American team, combined with the ability to innovate - for which our brand

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UK - 4Wall Entertainment, a US-based provider of lighting and video rentals, sales, and services, has reached an agreement in principle to acquire the assets of HSL Group Holdings Ltd. of Blackburn, UK.
As part of the agreement, the majority of HSL's staff would remain on-board and the facility and location would be rebranded as 4Wall UK, creating the first international presence for 4Wall. The company currently has 10 locations in the US.
Under the agreement current HSL MD Simon Stuart would lead the sales team of the UK branch, assuming the role of VP of Business Development for 4Wall UK. The entirety of the HSL sales team is expected to move forward with the 4Wall branch as well, continuing to serve their current customer bases while also pursuing new business.
Simon Stuart comments: "I've been very public about the financial stress HSL had found itself

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UK/USA - Rising British rock band Don Broco have finished a UK arena and club tour, and now head to the States. Dominating their stage production have been impression X4 Bar 20 LED battens from GLP, specified and programmed by Ben Inskip.
Ben was asked to join the band’s team in 2017 when they announced a one-off show at Alexandra Palace to kick off their new album campaign, which at the time was the biggest full production show they had done. “Since then we have done shows of all shapes and sizes, but this arena tour was another big step up for them and a fitting end to the Technology album cycle,” says Ben.
In keeping with the Technology name, the LD set out to give the shows a futuristic look throughout the cycle “using a lot of straight lines to create interesting shapes”.
“The design evolved over many revisions to a point where I

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Germany – The Music & Lights stand design featured the company’s largest footprint to date and played host to over 400 luminaires in the popular Prolights arena, along with the 20 new lighting products in the touring, studio and architectural markets also on display which were launched during the event.
The display area featured a new and innovative interactive touchscreen system allowing visitors to test fixtures at their own leisure, interact with the Music & Lights team and the dedicated global distributor network.
The new luminaires from the Prolights, Tribe and ArchWork ranges were all available on show and connected to the touchscreen displays allowing users to integrate them into the demonstration. The demo show on the stand was visited by various international media outlets, renowned designers and worldwide customers, who conveyed their satisfactio

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UK - Colour Sound Experiment collaborated with lighting designer Miles Weaver as the lighting supplier for the intimate soul-y funk sounds of UK singer/ songwriter Nao, who has just completed the first UK and European leg of her Saturn tour following the release of her second album last autumn.
The tour was project-managed for Colour Sound by Alex Ryan, who comments: “It’s the first time we’ve worked with Miles as a supplier and it was an excellent experience. His design was original and interesting, and it is always exciting to be involved with an LD and artist with a great future ahead.”
Miles took a floor package on the tour, stepping up to a full rig for the London showcase at Brixton Academy.
The floor package had to offer max versatility yet pack down into a trailer, so Miles chose 12 x Robe Spiider LED wash beams for this. He wanted to achi

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Germany - Large crowds visited the Chauvet Professional stand throughout Prolight + Sound. The brightest attraction that drew these visitors were the company’s new Maverick MK3 Spot and Maverick MK3 Profile LED fixtures. Supported by a marketing campaign built around a “take your breath away” tag line, the new fixtures are suited for even the largest arena and stadium applications.
The new 820W fixtures also offer value in terms of their weight and dimensions, being lighter and more compact than many luminaires with a comparable output. Adding to their advantage is a wide range of performance features, including full-loaded static, rotation and animation effects. Both fixtures have a 6° to 54° zoom angle, the widest ever offered in the Maverick series.
Other fixtures in the Chauvet Professional line (new and existing) were featured in the stand’s David Howard

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USA - On 30 April, 2019, Elite Multimedia Productions and PixelFLEX LED will host a collective open house event showcasing a range of technologies available for the live production and permanent installation markets.
Created to allow guests to network with other industry professionals, and technology experts from both companies, the event will also allow visitors to take a closer look at the latest LED video, lighting, and audio solutions for their next design. With food and drinks supplied by Hoss Burgers and Little Harpeth Brewing, the open house will take place from 5-8 pm at 700 Cowan Street in Nashville, Tennessee.
“In an industry with so many talented designers and production personnel, this is a tremendous opportunity for us to showcase the breadth of design possibilities offered by both Elite Multimedia Productions and PixelFLEX LED,” said David Venus, chi

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Greece - Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, has established itself as a leading entertainment centre in the eastern Mediterranean with a thriving nightclub scene, a highly regarded film festival, popular theatres and a seemingly never-ending schedule of live music concerts.
Indicative of the city’s current entertainment panache was the winter concert series at the Pyli A Performance Stage. A highlight of the series was a concert by multi-platinum contemporary Laïkó singer Antonis Remos. Supporting the star’s passionate performance was a majestic George Porros-designed lightshow that immersed the audience with a stunning display of 144 overhead light tubes.
Suspended over almost the entire stage and extending out over the audience stage left and stage right, the tubes created an impressive image. Constantly morphing into different configurations as di

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Europe - Tears for Fears are back on the road in style, kicking off 2019 with a sold-out UK and European arena tour for which lighting designer Alex Reardon, from LA-based creative design practice Silent House, delivered the lighting scheme.
Alex utilised 66 x Robe MegaPointe moving lights as a key element of the rig - among other fixtures - to imagine a memorable looking and flexible lightshow as the band delighted enthusiastic audiences - original and new - and fans with their diverse catalogue and multiple hits.
He positioned the multipurpose MegaPointes everywhere in the rig. Thirty - 10 each - were rigged on three overhead trusses, some were positioned upstage behind a row of LED video pixel battens, there were three per side on the deck for low-level cross lighting and another six in the air each side for high-level effects.
He described the MegaPointe as

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UK - Event design and technical production specialist Maestra Group, run by Justin Hammond (London) and Tom Clements (Dubai), has doubled the size of its UK and European operation ready for a busy 2019.
The east London HQ was bursting at the seams of its Victorian industrial building in Woolwich, where the Maestra mission started in January 2016. When the opportunity to take over the warehouse next door arose, it provided a convenient solution.
Parts of the walls have been knocked through and the interiors completely re-designed so the two spaces operate as an efficient and continuous workspace.
There are now new prepping and dispatch areas for projects leaving the warehouse, greater space for truck loading as well as enlarged storage and maintenance sections for all the different equipment sections. The extra space made available downstairs has been taken up alr

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South Africa - Semi Soet is a new music venue which opened its door in Centurion in 2018. The owners turned to DWR Distribution for their audio and lighting requirements and the effective solution included Quest loudspeakers, a DiGiCo console and Robe lighting.
Jaco Beukes from DWR recommended four Quest HPI110 Compact High-definition loudspeakers and two Quest HPI18BP Bandpass 18” Subwoofers as the main audio system. “We had to install a system that would offer quality, and it certainly helped that Quest comes at a reasonable price,” said Beukes.
The audio installation also included two Quest QM450A Lightweight Active 12" loudspeakers for the monitor requirements. The centre-fill and out-fills comprise of two Quest HPI111 Compact Hight-definition speakers. To cater for the audio upstairs, three HP15 5” High Output Loudspeakers were added.
Semi Soet deci

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Spain - Twenty-four Astera AX1 Pixel Tubes were utilised for one of 20 site-specific lighting installations created by individual artists for the first UMBRA Light Festival in Vitoria-Gastiez, Spain.
The vibrant and highly multicultural historical capital city and seat of government of the Basque Autonomous Community in Alava, northern Spain, came alive for three days, offering creatives, visitors and lighting enthusiasts from all over Spain, Europe and much further afield a chance to redefine the city and see it in some new, exciting and reimagined urban contexts.
UMBRA was organised by ARGIA 3 Asociación Cultural and curated by a new collective comprising Rafael Gallego, the principal of Aureolighting, Joaquín Pérez-Goicoechea, founding partner of AGi Architects and stage lighting designer, light artist, and founder of Studio & Light Carlos Torrijos – three

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Germany - Robert Juliat, which celebrates its centenary in 2019, presented its SpotMe system at Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt. Robert Juliat’s award-winning SpotMe bespoke solution for followspot technology was demonstrated with a new interface, the SpotMe Maestro, developed in partnership with zactrack of Austria. SpotMe Maestro allows the SpotMe system to operate universally with all DMX lighting consoles on the market.
“With SpotMe Maestro we have made the SpotMe technology more widely available to all venues and events, broadening the protocol possibilities,” says Claus Spreyer, Robert Juliat’s sales director. “We are proud to be associated with zactrack which is a major player in the field of position tracking, 3D-calculation and media control.”
“As a young, high-tech company, zactrack is honoured to deliver our 3D knowledge to the best-known brand fo

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UK - Leisuretec Distribution inspired the industry’s future bright sparks with a training day on Zero 88’s FLX / S lighting consoles. The event took place at Leisuretec’s HQ in February 2019, offering a group of home-educated students aged 13-18 the opportunity to taste the world of entertainment and theatre lighting.
Zero 88’s FLX / S lighting desks provide a simple and intuitive solution perfect for applications where the user has little lighting knowledge but needs to operate their theatre, school stage, event or production. Each desk equipped with a visualiser, the group of young people learnt how to patch and set up their stage and how to use chases, groups, cues, playbacks, colour palettes and many other features to create an effective show with wash and intelligent lighting.
“We recognise the importance of bringing young people into the industry to h

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The Netherlands - TechPro, provider of video, audio and lighting services for the live events industry has announced its first site in Continental Europe, with the opening of a newly built 2000 sq. ft. warehouse and office unit in Ridderkerk, close to the city of Rotterdam.
Although long in the planning, the potential for logistical disruption following Brexit helped TechPro’s management team with their decision to open up in the Netherlands and mitigate any impact on the company’s ability to meet growing demand for European-based live events.
TechPro director Rob Stokes, commented: “UK-based event agencies rely on TechPro to deliver truckloads of AV equipment throughout Europe with smooth efficiency.
“With over 60% of our work now taking place at event venues throughout the EU and beyond, our new branch in the Netherlands will allow us to continually mee

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Company Stars - A revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical Company was among the big winners at Sunday night's Olivier Awards. It won four prizes at the ceremony. The West End revival of the 1970 musical saw the lead character, Robert, re-imagined as a woman.
Accepting the award for best musical revival, the show's director Marianne Elliott explained her company's "main goal was to put female stories front and centre on our stages".
Two other shows took home four prizes from the ceremony - The Inheritance and Come From Away. Other winners included: Best set design - Bunny Christie (Company), Best lighting - Jon Clark (The Inheritance), Best sound design - Gareth Owen (Come From Away)
Mamma Mia! - Abba's Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus made a surprise appearance as hit musical Mamma Mia! celebrated i
  1. Elation extends LED warranty
  2. Chauvet shines on Nacht van de Schlagers
  3. Hawthorn supports ITV drama showcase
  4. DTS and GDS forge UK partnership
  5. Royal Albert Hall d&b installation debuts
  6. European PlugFest celebrates France debut
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