Lighting

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UK - With an unclear future for tungsten lighting, the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough has taken no chances in investing in a new range of LED fixtures. The theatre’s existing lighting fixtures were in need of an upgrade, with their pre-existing tungsten dimmers on their last legs; the timing was perfect to make the transition to LED.
The theatre turned to Stage Electrics, who were able to offer advice, guidance and demonstrations of the latest equipment available. “The Stephen Joseph Theatre approached us with a clear inclination that now was the right time for them to make the change to LED,” comments Andy Elsegood of Stage Electrics. “During the wake of the EU ECODesign stage lighting regulation changes, it would have been unwise to replace their longstanding tungsten equipment with new tungsten, so I was glad when they informed me they were already conside

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USA - DCR Nashville is providing Claypaky Mythos 2 and Scenius spots for American singer-songwriter Halsey’s 2018 touring schedule, including festivals and her continuing Hopeless Fountain Kingdom World Tour.
The tour, in support of her second studio album of the same name, began last fall and will conclude this September. It is her second headlining concert tour.
Production designers Sooner Routhier and Robert Long of S Rae Productions designed the show, which makes extensive use of LED video. Large stairs have LED video on the risers, and a large LED wall upstage is comprised of two screens split at the centre. Above the stage are five straight trusses with lighting, which mimic the stairs giving a very linear look to the overall design. Craig Rutherford is the lighting director.
DCR Nashville has supplied the tour with 14 Claypaky Mythos 2 fixtures an

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UK - The National Theatre's River Stage Festival is in full swing, bringing a dazzling array of acts to London’s Southbank with on-the-fly lighting by chief LD Huw Llewellyn on an Avolites Arena.
Now in its fourth year, the festival runs on weekends during July and August, bringing free performances of classical music, cabaret, dance and much more, to a temporary stage in front of the National Theatre building.
Avolites supplied the National Theatre with a full lighting control solution, which in addition to the Arena consists of a Tiger Touch II (TTII) and Fader Wing.
“The Arena is built for festivals and theatres and we’re pretty much both during River Stage, so it’s an obvious choice,” says Llewellyn. “There are so many shows and most have little to no tech time at all. The Arena is perfect for busking with lots of faders, a great FX engine

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UK - The Knight of Illumination Awards (KOI) has revealed the 2018 Concert Touring & Events shortlist.
This year's judging panel is led by chair Jess Allan, and comprises LSi editor Claire Beeson, TPi editor Kelly Murray, director of 18 Degrees architectural lighting Christopher Knowlton, head of lighting design at creative agency Imagination, Jonny Milmer, and account manager at Coloursound Experiment Jo Bierne.

Concert Touring & Events Shortlist

Award for Arena, sponsored by GLP German Light Products
Cate Carter for Elbow
Tim Routledge for Sam Smith
Rob Sinclair for Queen + Adam Lambert
Award for Stage, sponsored by Avolites
Bruno Poet and Matt Daw for Sigur Rós
Rob Sinclair for David Byrne
Samuel Tozer for Wilkinson
Award for Club, sponsored by MA Lighting
Tom

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UK - Nominations for PLASA’s Gottelier Award are now open.
The award, named after late lighting designer and industry commentator Tony Gottelier, launched in 2007 to recognise product developers who have made significant and sustained contributions to the advancement of entertainment, presentation or installation technology. Previous recipients include Wayne Howell (Artistic Licence), Anne Valentino (ETC), David Cunningham (Entertec), Pasquale Quadri (Claypaky), Jim Bornhorst (Vari-Lite), John Meyer (Meyer Sound), Terry Clarke (Klark Teknik, MC2 Audio), Fred Foster (ETC), Alex Cooper (Midas & Klark Teknik), John Stadius (DiGiCo / Soundtracs) and Tony Andrews (Funktion-One).
Anyone in the industry can nominate individuals as well as development teams by emailing

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Belgium - The Belgian city of Genk in Limburg recently switched on a new civic lighting installation, Genker Ster (Genk Star). The piece of light art was designed by creative lighting and visual design practice Painting with Light and enables the community to enjoy the fun and excitement of this ‘architainment’ concept all year round.
The permanent lighting installation was the brainchild of Genk Mayor, Wim Dries. Ambient lighting has been part of the vibrant and forward-thinking city’s festive experience for the last decade, however the new stars can now make an atmospheric impact throughout the year.
Once the project was green-lighted by the city council, a tender was issued for a concept design and specification which was won by Painting with Light.
The design - comprising the 275 stars - was chosen both for its aesthetics, smart technolog

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USA - The Minnesota Vikings have opened a new studio at their Twin Cities Optical (TCO) Performance Centre headquarters and practice facility. Featuring four distinct video-shooting areas, the studio, designed by Peter Provost of Provost Studio, is illuminated by a colourful lighting system created by Mike Grabowski of the Lighting Design Group that features close to 100 Chauvet Professional Ovation and COLORdash fixtures.
The studio offers maximum flexibility for broadcasting during the football season and throughout the year. An example of this can be seen its main section, which has a cutting-edge acoustic wall that rises to open to a 170-seat theatre for live audience programs.
With its ability to create a rainbow of realistic colours and change them quickly, the Lighting Design Group’s system supports the TCO studio’s combination of beautiful aesthetics and

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USA - Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi holds a theatre summer camp each year and this year Elation Professional was a sponsor, making available both LED and discharge-based moving heads that allowed students the hands-on opportunity to work with state-of-the-art lighting gear.
Camp on the Coast: Creating Leaders in Life and on the Stage is a theatre camp that teaches more than acting, lighting, props and costume design, according to Phil Johnson, lighting and technical director at the Department of Theatre and Dance at Texas A&M. “It’s an immersive experience promoting creativity, comradery and healthy competition,” he says. More than 120 of the best high school theatre students from around Texas attended the camp, an intense two-week summer programme for students.
The camp usually puts on six plays in both a proscenium and black box theatre, p

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Spain/UK - Television lighting specialists Aurora Lighting is supporting LD James Tinsley and the crew on the latest season of Love Island for ITV2.
Following the success of the previous series, the team has returned to the villa to build the setting for the latest batch of Islanders. Colourful and intense, the look created for the show provides the perfect backdrop to the on-screen twists and turns of the relationships evolving between the singles seeking love and a possible share of the £50K prize.
Working closely with lighting director James Tinsley and his team, Aurora has delivered a full location package to assist in creating the show’s setting. Along with a selection of Fresnels and PARs used for ambient illumination, of particular note is the creative mix of vibrant RGB LED flex and practical fixtures including the 2000m of festoon that frames the sur

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies, a Patron of the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC), supplied the event lighting for the club's annual British Grand Prix party at Silverstone Circuit.
Staged within the grounds of the BRDC Farm as part of the Formula 1 Rolex British Grand Prix weekend, the occasion attracts high-profile members and motorsport personalities. AC-ET has been a patron of the BRDC’s Young Driver Programme for over a decade, and supplied the lighting design for the Party ever since.
AC-ET worked closely again with the BRDC to create the lighting theme for the event, which this year saw the Club celebrate 90 years, and the upcoming 70th British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit. To commemorate it, the Farm grounds featured displays of historic cars which have played a key part in the history of Silverstone and Formula 1 over the past seven decades.

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UK - The Piccadilly Theatre in London’s West End opened in 1928 as one of the largest theatres in London. In 2017, it underwent a major refurbishment, aimed at enhancing many of its original features using modern technology, as well as meeting modern sustainability targets.
Theatre owners Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) wanted to completely replace the Piccadilly Theatre’s existing house light system with low-energy LED lighting, without detracting in any way from the theatre’s Art Deco heritage. This was to include emergency lighting throughout as well as provision for the recently restored dome ceiling, including new centre-piece chandelier. Integrator White Light was engaged to install the new system.
GDS supplied products from across its entire range to meet this extensive brief, including a number of bespoke special project items that avoided any compromise w

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USA - The stately building at 1615 Vine - one of the first legitimate Broadway-style theatres in Hollywood - was purchased in 1999 by the Ricardo Montalbán Foundation as part of its mission to promote theatre education and the work of Latino artists.
In 2005, it was renamed The Montalbán and has served as an incubator of budding theatrical talent by hosting the Chauvet Professional Student Lighting Showcase.
Now in its fifth year, the annual interactive educational event, which was sponsored by 4Wall Entertainment, provides lighting students from Los Angeles-area college theatre programmes an opportunity to collaborate on design projects and have their work evaluated by noted lighting designers. This year’s group of designers included Jeff Ravitz, Matt Ford, James Schipper, Rachel Miller, Mark Devlin and Aron Altmark.
Aside from having the opportunity to rec

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Italy - Giudizio Universale: Michelangelo and the Secrets of the Sistine Chapel is the immersive, multimedia stage show created by Marco Balich of Balich Worldwide Shows. For the show's lighting, Balich worked alongside award-winning designers Rob Halliday and Bruno Poet who selected a range of ADB and Claypaky lighting products (see LSi June 2018 for a full production report).
Now running at the Auditorium Conciliazione in Rome, the show features live theatrical performances, dance and aerial acrobatics. Vivid, 270° high-resolution projections of Michelangelo's work, created by live video design company, Luke Halls Studio are mapped across a 'vaulted' digital p

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Tax Relief - Statistics published by HM Revenue and Customs show that theatre benefitted from £77m of tax relief in 2017/18, up from £44m the year before - a 75% increase. There were 910 claims made in 2017/18, representing 2,980 productions. Of this, 1,140 were touring and 1,840 were non-touring shows.
Since September 2014, when tax relief for the sector was introduced, a total of £137m has been paid out in relief, covering 1,670 claims and 4,680 productions.
The tax policy follows similar schemes for other media such as film, television and video games. Touring shows can claim back 25% relief on eligible costs and other productions can claim 20%.
Society of London Theatre chief executive Julian Bird said the tax relief had “allowed producers to become more adventurous and compensated for reductions in funding from other sources”.
Reunion Blues<

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USA - From the waterfront in Portland, Maine to the West End in Portland, Oregon, America’s downtown districts are experiencing a revitalization boom. One of the most inspiring signs of this renewal can be found at 1601 Grand Boulevard in the heart of Kansas City, where the Church of the Resurrection - Downtown held its inaugural service on 2 June, making it the first new house of worship to open in Missouri’s largest city in over 80 years.
A modern $10.2m structure, the new 450-seat church has a flexible LED stage lighting system that helps it meet the diverse needs of its community. Designed and installed by Stark Raving Solutions, the lighting rig features a broad collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures.
“The Church of the Resurrection - Downtown was founded in 1990 and is based in the suburb of Leawood, Kansas, but it had been looking to open a satellite

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UK - TSL Lighting has invested more than £500,000 in new rental stock as it announces the completion of its acquisition of corporate and event lighting specialist Blinding Light.
The investment expands the company's stock of fixtures from a range of manufacturers, including Chroma-Q, Claypaky, Luminex, Chamsys and Litepanels.
Managing director Sam Tamplin comments: "This marks a significant moment for TSL and Blinding Light as we underpin our commitment to growth and service with significant stock expansion. Both brands share common core values - to provide the best quality lighting and rigging equipment and services to the production industry, delivered by skilled, knowledgeable and friendly project managers and technicians. I truly believe that our combined team - made up of well respected, experienced staff who share these values - will be a huge advantage to all o

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USA - Located in New Orleans, Audubon Zoo offers visitors an exotic mix of animal encounters from around the world and are renowned for their natural habitats. With the recent addition of their latest exhibit, the zoo would be opening a 42ft, transparent flyway entitled Criaturas de la Noche filled with more than 200 short-tailed bats. Needing a nocturnal lighting design that would entice its inhabitants to come to life, the design engineers worked with LEA-Inc. who provided a combination of Chalice RGBW recessed and pipe-mounted LED luminaires from Altman Lighting.
Mike Gonzales, LEA-Inc. controls specialist, comments: “We have done quite a few projects over the years with the Audubon Zoo, but nothing as unique and specific as this installation. The project was part of a $3m addition to the zoo called the Jaguar Jungle, designed to showcase animals from Sou

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Denmark - The Danish summer tour and concert season is rocking with multiple artists on the road performing hundreds of concerts to many thousands of enthusiastic fans - many outdoors, some indoors, own headliners, festivals, taking advantage of the long daylight hours, milder temperatures and the public’s voracious appetite for live music and performance - a small country that most definitely feels the beat.
Rasmus Seebach is one of Denmark’s’ best known and most popular singer / songwriter and music producers and lighting his 2018 summer tour is Jacob Baekmand who designed a spectacular set, lighting and visual performance space.
The lighting rig includes 24 x Robe Spiider LED wash beams and 16 x MegaPointes - the first time Baekmand had used these - purchased for the occasion by Nordic Rentals, and these have been making a lot of impact, together with the Cope

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UK - The Nevill Holt Opera House, located in a converted 17th century stable block of the Nevill Holt Estate in Leicestershire, was officially inaugurated on 14 June for the start of Nevill Holt Opera’s (NHO) annual season.
Over the last six years, NHO, backed by the David Ross Foundation (DRF), has built an opera company to support emerging British opera talent and local children and students from DRF academies.
NHO’s summer opera season was previously housed in a temporary tented structure within the stable block which hid the interior of the historic structure. The limitations of the tent prompted the idea of a new permanent structure to keep out the noise of rain and wind; deliver excellent acoustics for young voices; improve the audience-performer relationship whilst preserving the intimacy of the existing space; optimise the technical equipping of the stage

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USA - Signify reports that the current Beautiful Trauma world tour by pop star Pink is benefiting from the power and presence of the Philips Vari-Lite VL6000 Beam luminaire. Lighting designer Baz Halpin is employing the fixture to provide dramatic punctuations to the energetic and spectacular production.
Halpin comments: "This is a hybrid between a very theatrically-lit show and a punchy rock and roll show. The fixtures chosen needed to be able to live between those two worlds. We were specifically looking for a fixture that could cut through the brightness of the LED screen and act as a powerful rear side-light to dramatically draw attention to the action."
The VL6000 Beam fixtures are grouped together on two giant, actuated arms that hang over the stage. “We tightly clustered the fixtures in groups of three to give them a unique personality in the context of

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China - Mirror-Mirror is a dynamic kinetic installation created by German lighting / visual artist Christopher Bauder from WHITEvoid, featuring contemporary dancer and crossover artist Qiu Jirong and one of seven stand-alone segments making up Apologue 2047/2, directed by Chinese film director Zhang Yimou.
The work was produced by L!VE Kingway at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing in June and will tour China in August allowing a wider audience to experience how Zhang Yimou breaks the form of traditional stage presentation by blending Chinese folk arts with modern technology, creating a unique performance concept in the process.
For Mirror-Mirror, Christopher utilised 30 x Robe Pointes as his primary lightsources, which worked in unison with 102 x Kinetic Lights WinchLEDpixels and 34 x Mirror Disc lighting fixtures.
Each mi

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USA - Redemption to the Nations church in Chattanooga recently renovated its 2,000-seat sanctuary and outfitted the space with a new Elation intelligent lighting system spec’ed and installed by intyde.
The growing ministry sits on the site of the former Highland Park Baptist Church, a once megachurch, as well as the campus of defunct Tennessee Temple University. With a vision to gather the entire ministry onto one campus, church leaders took the opportunity to acquire the 55-acre site in 2014 and transformed it into the Redemption to the Nations campus.
The all LED lighting system, a remarkably fast install that took place from 9-21 October 2017, includes a variety of Elation LED moving heads - Satura Profile, Platinum SEVEN, Platinum Spot III and ACL 360i - along with Colour 5 Profile ellipsoidals and SixBar 500 battens.
The design merges church lighting with

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USA - Matching the double Grammy winners' irrepressible energy on Nine Inch Nails’ current Cold and Black and Infinite tour is a 'raw, blow-your-head-back lightshow' designed by Paul 'Arlo' Guthrie that draws on the intense output of 28 Chauvet Professional STRIKE 4 fixtures supplied by PRG.
The tour is promoting the band’s ninth album Bad Witch and opened on 13 June at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas, with an extended run in Europe and Japan to take place in the summer before the band returns to the US for 28 shows at venues like Radio City Music Hall and the Hollywood Palladium. Guthrie’s rig, which has its STRIKE 4 fixtures on rolling stage carts, was designed to adapt to any venue.
Guthrie explains: “We’re keeping this rig very flexible and basic, focusing on boldness and power. The show is intended to be the same at every venue, and that look

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Canada - Solotech has announced David Brazeau’s appointment as director, research and development (R&D).
In this role, Brazeau will lead a team of audio, lighting and video technology solution consultants and specialists. This team will support other Solotech professionals, contribute to the delivery of various complex projects and help select equipment from suppliers, in keeping with the company’s overall technology strategy.
During more than 21 years as a Solotech employee, David has developed a diversified expertise, first, as a shop technician, then as a production technician on international stages while touring with André Rieu and Céline Dion. He went on to make a name for himself as an audio project manager for various Solotech clients, including Britney Spears and Michael Bublé. Until recently, he was a technical advisor in the audio department.
  1. Elation offers iOS lighting control app
  2. KOI-USA 2018 reveals Theatre category panel
  3. AC-ET to hold July recruitment event
  4. Duo joins Ambersphere
  5. Ambersphere adds two new brands
  6. Oath's showcase shines with Philips Vari-Lite
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