Lighting

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Europe - From mid-October to early December, Finnish rock band Sunrise Avenue toured across Europe on their Heartbreak Century tour, a run of smaller venues before the five-member band hit the road on a bigger arena tour this year.
Light, set and video were supplied by Ambion GmbH. Lighting designer Stephan Aue, who supported the band for the first time in 2015 on their arena tour, was once again responsible for the lighting design, relying on products from Elation Professional, among others.
A total of 10 compact Elation ACL 360i beam effect lights were used, as well as five of Elation’s new Dartz 360 LED beam/spot fixtures. The fall Sunrise Avenue tour marked the touring debut of the compact narrow-beam Dartz luminaire.
The smaller venues presented a special challenge for Ambion and Aue, who explained that the entire production had to fit in a single

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The Netherlands - Dutch astronaut André Kuipers presented his SpaceXperience Live show as the central element of an immersive intergalactic journey in-the-round at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome, with Kuipers relating his many stories and real-life experiences working in space on various ESA programmes.
Lighting designer Henk-Jan van Beek from Dutch creative visual practice Light-H-Art was asked to light the show by production company LiveLane. He’s worked on many shows in the Ziggo Dome throughout his career, but this was the first time a concept like this was central to the 90-minute presentation.
Audiences were also treated to a simulated rocket blast off right in the middle of the venue, a jaw dropping piece of theatre for which Henk-Jan specified 40 x Robe BMFL WashBeam moving lights and 16 x Robe Cyclones to assist in creating all the drama and excitement of

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UK - Cardiff-based events specialist 11th Hour will bring its 11th year in business to a close by supplying a huge New Year’s Eve fireworks spectacular to its home city.
Sayers Amusements, with whom 11th Hour work to deliver Cardiff’s Winter Wonderland, commissioned the public display which will be fired from Cooper’s Field in Bute Park on the stroke of midnight.
The six minute aerial show will comprise professional Category 1.3 explosives with calibres ranging from 75 - 200mm, culminating with a loud, rapid-fire finale. Fireworks are a growing area of 11th Hour’s portfolio, the company having already delivered a number of high profile displays, not least of which was at this year’s Pride Cymru Big Weekend in Cardiff.
The New Year’s Eve show will be its biggest to date but as 11th Hour Director and British Pyrotechnists Association qualified and regis

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South Africa - For two days in November, Sandringham Farm was transformed into a village of worshippers as Christian bands from the UK, US, South Africa and elsewhere performed gospel.
Providing an uplifting visual backdrop to this celebration was a dynamic and ebullient lightshow of vivid colour washes and powerful aerial effects created by JP Willson of Unfazed Productions. Key to Willson’s transformative design was his collection of Chauvet Professional Rogue R2 Wash fixtures.
Willson hung 11 of the RGBW LED washes on a mid and rear stage truss, using them to reflect the mood of the music. The Rogue fixtures were used to sweep the stage with colors as well as for backwashing performers and aerial washing. The fixtures’ wide 12° to 49° zoom range allowed Willson to change his coverage area; while the output from their 19 15-watt LEDs provided him with enough

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China - TrueColor in Guangzhou City is the flagship venue of a chain of clubs created in 1995, currently owned and managed by Alliance Art Group.
TrueColor Guangzhou City recently sought upgrades to its audio system. After consultation with Mr. Tan who represents dealer Guangzhou EGG Technologies Company, Alliance Art Group called on DMT – Clair Brothers Chinese distributor – to help make the necessary improvements on behalf of TrueColor customers. Right on the heels of a complete upgrade and redesign of the layout and style of the club in June of 2017, the decision to call on Clair Brothers made sense.
TrueColor is a nightclub where music plays constantly, seven days a week with a full house, and permeates the entire establishment, so it has to sound awesome and perform reliably. After the redesign of the interior, the old system just didn’t fit the bill.

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UK - Just like the fairy-tale glass slipper that glided effortlessly onto Cinderella’s foot uniting her and Prince Charming, lighting designer Andy Webb has designed a colourful and fitting lighting scheme for Cinderella, this season’s pantomime at Blackpool UK’s Grand Theatre, utilising entirely Robe LED products.
It’s the third year that Andy has been asked to light this popular panto for UK Productions. Returning to the same venue has some definite advantages he explains, both in terms of knowing the space and what you can and can’t achieve in it, and also having an ongoing relationship with the local crew and technicians.
As always, the challenge with pantos is having to do a massive amount of programming in a very short time to produce the intense, magical, high-impact visuals characteristic of the genre.
For the last three years, Andy had i

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Serbia - Philips Lighting reports that its newest stage lighting fixtures have helped to deliver a magical environment for the recent concert at Belgrade's Sava Center by leading Bosnian folk music artist, Bozo Vrećo.
To create this enchanted environment in the 4,000-seat Sava Center, Serbia's largest concert venue, lighting designer Nebojsa Milojevic required powerful lighting fixtures. They needed to be capable of delivering bright, crisp projections and striking beams and effects, and with enough presence to register even against the background LED screen. He settled on 60 lighting fixtures from the Philips Entertainment Lighting range, including VL6000 Beams, VLZ Spots and SL Hydrus 350 luminaires.
In bringing his critically-acclaimed show to Belgrade, the artist asked Milojevic to "paint with the lights and connect the eyes of the audience with the songs.". With

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UAE - ETC has announced the latest addition to its expanding sales team, with the appointment of Mark Larcombe as regional sales manager for the Middle East and India. He takes over from Darren Beckley, who was recently promoted to the position of sales manager for ETC Ltd.
In his new position, Larcombe will be responsible for the sales territory that includes the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq and India. He will be based out of ETC's London office, with much of his time spent in the field, working in cooperation with ETC's distributors, dealers and integrators in his territory.
Larcombe joins ETC from the UK-based systems integration, sales and rental company Stage Electrics, where he most recently served as an international sales manager. During his eight-year tenure with the company, he was involved in many prestigious global

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UK - When Craig David brought his TS5 gig to Brixton O2 Academy in November, he called once again on long-standing collaborator Stephen Abbiss to add his own creative touch to the accompanying lighting and set design.
Favouring live lighting control over playback, Abbiss selected Avolites and its Arena console, running the latest Titan V10.1 software, for the TS5 show. Abbiss used the Arena to control his geometric lighting design.
The TS5 show originated as a Sunday afternoon DJ party at the artist's Miami home, and now sees him DJ and MC and sing on stage. Abbiss says: "I based my design for this show on the cover artwork on Craig's new album, The Time is Now. The picture is of him and a large clock face, so I decided to reflect that circular image with my lights and truss."
Abbiss produced a series of three concentric circles of tru

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USA - Lighting consultant Howard M. Brandston and artist Dan George created a light installation in the City of Syracuse featuring SGM’s i-2 White IP66-rated POI lights.
The permanent installation, part of the larger Connective Corridor project, was initiated to illuminate iconic buildings and public spaces between Columbus Circle and Armory Square.
Brandston explains: “The Jefferson Street project is really an investment in turning a typical motor-oriented roadway into a pedestrian-oriented city street. The installation reflects off people, making the installation essentially invisible until occupied; it takes people to show the light because the people become the light.”
The installation on Jefferson Street is the signature illumination under the larger Connective Corridor project, connecting Syracuse University to Downtown Syracuse.

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Germany - Laserworld has released version 6 of the Laserworld Showeditor professional laser control software. Several new features have been added and many other improvements have been made, says the company.
The Live window has become easier to use for beginners, as it automatically loads the default show, which can be customised and recalled any time. Several faders have been added to control master intensity, master speed and colour shift effects from the live interface or also external fader consoles (MIDI/DMX).
The Timeline programming window has been extended with pre-set fade effects to ease and speed up laser show programming with the Laserworld Showeditor.
All license owners of Laserworld Showeditor 2015 can upgrade free of charge.
(Jim Evans)

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Latvia - The first Eurovision Choir of the Year contest took place in Riga, Latvia. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Interkultur Foundation, the inaugural event hosted nine professional choirs, each representing a different European country.
The venue was the Arena Riga, a 14,500-capacity stadium, and Green Hippo technology was on hand to help deliver a live spectacular, in keeping of the EBU’s best known production, the Eurovision Song Contest.
Company NA and Latvian Green Hippo distributor, PRO 1 Stage, worked with Kristaps Skulte (stage design) and Maris Kalve (video content) to deliver the visuals. With two Hippotizer Boreals, and a trio of Hippotizer Karsts, the team had an impressive array of technology to work with. Andrejs Mefodovskis headed the Hippotizer set-up and configuration, with Ivars Vacers handling programming and control

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Germany - They were the rock idols of the Munich ‘Schickeria’, and in the 80s and 90s were Bavaria’s hottest rock exports throughout the whole of Europe - step forward, Barny Murphy, Günther Sigl and the Spider Murphy Gang. Their recent 40th anniversary concert showed they had lost none of their fire, and Marc Lorenz from CUE Design provided an appropriate lightshow at the Olympiahalle.
The band and lighting designer are long-time companions. "In the mid-'90s, when I was still at the beginning of my career, I worked in Munich for the first time,” Marc recalls. "Later, at the band's 20th anniversary, I had my second engagement as moving light operator, and at the planning stage for the 40th Anniversary came the request for me to take over the lighting design for the Olympiahalle.
“The band is rock 'n' roll - and should always remain so. But of course, there m

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Belgium - De Bijloke in Ghent is home to a number of local cultural institutions including the Ghent City Museum, De Bijloke Ghent Music Centre, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the Ghent Conservatory College.
The Music Centre is housed in the building of a medieval hospital, carefully restored to include modern galleries, rehearsal rooms, offices and a lobby. The main concert hall lies within the original 700-year-old construction and seats 960 audience members, primarily but not exclusively, for classical concerts and recitals.
The management at De Bijloke wished to significantly improve upon the lighting provision in the Music Centre. In the past, the stage for classical concerts had been lit by way of 1kW and 2kW spotlights to meet the demand for the musicians to be able to clearly see their scores. Every concert was very labour-intensive and consumed large amou

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USA - The Bryant Park Winter Village, a five-month winter wonderland located at a 9.6- acre park in Midtown Manhattan, has a lighting display created by Diana Kesselschmidt and featuring a collection of over 130 Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by PRG.
Kesselschmidt, who is lighting the Bryant Park Winter Village for the first time, used 116 COLORado 2-Quad Zoom IP fixtures and 18 Ovation E-260WW IP ellipsoidals to bring an added level of warmth to the popular attraction. “Coming here is a tradition for many New Yorkers,” she said. “We wanted to use lighting to create an immersive atmosphere that reflected this connection between the people of the city and this spot.”
COLORado 2-Quad Zoom IP fixtures units in Kesselschmidt’s rig wash the 17,000sq.ft ice skating rink, as well as the interiors of its first and second floor pavilions, which house a skate

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USA - Bandit Lites teamed up with the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree programme and Knoxville’s Angel Tree to provide some holiday cheer to the local community.
Bandit has provided the local communities with Angel Tree assistance for many years. Knoxville’s Angel Tree programme has been working to make sure Santa visits every local child, no matter their circumstances since 1975, and the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Programme delivers gifts to over one million children each year.
In a combined effort by HR coordinator Cori Link, director of philanthropy Allison Burchett and controller Shay Simpson, each Bandit team member across multiple Bandit locations had the opportunity to shop for an underprivileged child. Individual paper angels held children’s wishes, ranging from toys and games to practical needs that so many can take for granted, such as toothbrushes and

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UK - Adlib supplied full production, including sound, lighting, rigging and large format video projection, for a special one-off event at the SSE Wembley Arena in London, DreamWorks Animation in Concert which was presented by DreamWorks Animation, CineConcerts, and The MJR Group. It featured music and many memorable moments from DreamWorks Animation’s numerous hit films like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon and more with music performed live by The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.
Adlib project managers Dave Eldridge and Richard Nicholson co-ordinated all the technical elements working closely with tour manager Barry Jepson, MJR’s production manager Leanne Powell, technical manager Curtis King and creative director Nathan Stone.
It completes a hattrick of recent noteworthy orchestral works serviced by Adlib including

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UK - The Hazlitt Theatre’s recent investment in ProLights LED fixtures for their studio space has exceeded expectations so much that they have been promoted to the main stage.
Parkwood Theatres, which owns and manages the Hazlitt Theatre, purchased ProLights StudioCOB LED PARs, ProLights Jetspot3 LED spots, and ProLights Diamond19 LED wash luminaires.
The team at the venue in Maidstone, Kent were so impressed with the performance of their new fixtures that they moved many of them into the main house to light their bigger productions – starting with this year's ‘all-star’ Christmas Pantomime, Cinderella.
Sam Ray, the theatre's technical manager and LD forCinderella, commented: "The ProLights fixtures have really exceeded our expectations since arriving in our studio, so I wanted the benefit of using them on our main stage productions too - s

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UK - Swedish electro four-piece band Little Dragon has been on a roll in 2017, as their heavy ethereal beats and synth-driven hooks have garnered them a following on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as slots at the Coachella and Bestival festivals.
Reflective of the band’s stratospheric surge in popularity is the new lighting rig on its current sold-out UK tour. LD Tim Smith, who recently began collaborating with the band, specified Maverick MK Pyxis fixtures, as well as COLORdash Par-Hex 12 units, from Chauvet Professional for their current touring rig.
“After Bestival and our other summer commitments came to an end, Little Dragon’s tour manager asked me to start looking for a fixture package that would be able to fit in one trailer along with the rest of our gear, whilst still maintaining the original look and feel of previous performances,” commented Smit

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Europe - Indie pop band Sylvan Esso has been making waves on both sides of the Atlantic, having played top venues across North America this summer, including the Fox Theatre in Oakland, the Hollywood Palladium, Brooklyn Steel New York and Prospect Park, before completing a European tour in support of their second album, What Now in the autumn.
The duo engaged production designer, Zach Sternberg - who has been with them since their first album in 2013 - to devise a dynamic set and lighting design that could be toured across venues of various capacities.
Sternberg based his design around a giant cantilever system of custom trapezoidal truss attached to six weighted carts, each of which carried four new Ayrton MagicBlade-FX fixtures which he used to define the geometric shape. The result is a sculptural element formed of a series of chevrons, the outline of which

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Singapore - Robert Juliat fixtures were specified for the Singapore Airlines (SIA) Theatre at the LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore as part of the venue's lighting inventory upgrade.
Ten years after the college moved into its McNally Street campus that houses the theatre, senior technical officers Patrick Wong and Sayuthi Bin Jasmin took delivery of 10 Robert Juliat Dalis 860 Cyclorama LED battens to replace the 10-year old conventional cyclorama and groundrow lighting.
“Prior to the acquisition of our new Dalis units we were using eight tungsten cyclorama lights and a similar number of tungsten groundrows,” explains Patrick. “These have been excellent workhorses, but conventional lighting fixtures come with their problems as well.
“The age and fragility of these fixtures meant lamp replacement was becoming more and more frequent and a bit of a c

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UK - Doughty Engineering has worked alongside property and construction consultants Ridge to provide a permanent lighting installation for the transmitter mast at Alexandra Palace.
Renowned worldwide as the birthplace of television, Alexandra Palace remained the major production centre for BBC from 1936 to the early 1950s, except during the Second World War. While no broadcasts now take place from Ally Pally, as it is affectionately known, the transmitter mast is one of the most iconic landmarks in the north London skyline.
To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the first television broadcast, Alexandra Palace wanted to “light up” its iconic telecommunications mast and Ridge was on hand to provide its electrical engineering and lighting design skills.
Andrew Selwood, associate at Ridge explained: “Working alongside Architainment Lighting, we came up with an

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Denmark - SGM has announced Frank Hoehn as its new vice-president of global sales.
Frank has most recently worked as director of business development and has who has held international management positions in Australia, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland.
He comments: “SGM is structured in a very professional way, with all the right elements to continue to develop further to be a really important player, and I am excited to be able to use my experience to help SGM grow and EMEA hospitality for Martin / Harman International.”
“Denmark has always been strong in going out in the world and selling what Denmark has to offer. For such a small country to have so many world-renowned and iconic brands and companies is quite amazing, and is only possible if you are open to learn about other cultures, without moving away from own principles. Everyone here is so nice

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USA - City Theatrical’s DMXcat Multi Function Test Tool is now available in seven languages: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, and English. DMXcat was translated in partnership with multilingual lighting professionals to ensure that technical and industry terms were captured appropriately in every offered language.
Based on the user’s smartphone language settings, the suite of mobile applications will automatically update its written content to Spanish, French, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, or English, if the others are not selected. Translations are now live for iPhone, Android, and Amazon Fire.
City Theatrical‘s DMXcat Multifunction Test Tool makes it easy for anyone to control, analyse, or test any DMX lighting fixture, whether it’s a simple LED PAR or a complex moving light. The system consists of a small hardware dongle and a suite
  1. Flares at Ozzfest Meets Knotfest
  2. Elai Botner & Yaledi Haucutz tour with Robe
  3. Claypaky’s Scenius on the road with Katy Perry
  4. Dollywood aglow in Elation Lighting
  5. LD Joshua Cutts & SOS help TUT student
  6. Production companies’ double act for SA’s Got Talent
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