Lighting

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USA - Last month’s Ozzfest Meets Knotfest music festival brought dozens of rock acts, including Ozzy Osbourne, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, Deftones and Prophets of Rage, to San Bernardino, CA.
Four stages supported non-stop metal shredding with lighting and video provided by 4Wall Entertainment. Brighter than even the pyro were the 30 Solaris Flares in the lighting rig.
“Flares were the only choice,” says 4Wall director of live events Todd Roberts. “They pack a huge punch, and with so many artists we used them for a bunch of different effects. Their versatility is unsurpassed. We used them on all the toms and lined each of the straight sticks of truss, ‘framing’ the stage. We rely on Flares to give us just what we need and they never disappoint.”
Michael Keller was the event’s LD, and Ron Chamberlain was production manager. 4Wall Entertainmen

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Israel - Singer songwriter Elai Botner & Yaledi Haucutz completed an extensive seven-month tour of Israel with lighting created by Mickey Vilensky, who chose an all-Robe moving light rig.
The 12 x BMFL Spots and 24 x Spiider LED wash beams were supplied, together with the rest of the lighting equipment, by Simul Argaman Systems.
Botner is one of the top Israeli artists and Mickey is one of the leading Israeli lighting designers whose colourful career stretches back 34 years. All the skills and talents combined to produce a spectacular show for Botner’s many fans.
Mickey’s idea to have five 6m long upstage / downstage ‘finger’ trusses - each positioned 2m apart and raked (back-to-front) - was inspired by the Pink Floyd Division Bell tour design of 1994 which had lighting designed by Marc Brickman.
They had three days of production rehearsa

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USA - Katy Perry recently kicked off her Witness: The Tour in support of her eponymous new album, with Claypaky Scenius Unicos and Scenius Profiles prominent in the tour’s lighting rig.
The fixtures have been selected by the show’s producer and lighting designer, Baz Halpin of Silent House, who is using Claypaky’s Scenius range for the first time.
The stage design is dominated by a 130ft eye-shaped LED screen, and Halpin was given the brief to “create big, strong, powerful looks that would complement and work with the shape and power of the screen”.
To that end, he’s deploying 80 Scenius Unico and 50 Scenius Profile fixtures supplied by Upstaging. “Their power and versatility made them the perfect choice to stand up to the intense light coming from the LED screen,” says Halpin. “As we had 130ft lighting trusses with a single fixture type

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USA - Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, is a theme park success story for several reasons. Besides having one of country music’s leading personalities as co-owner, the park is a mix of traditional thrill rides spiced with crafts and culture, a successful recipe of entertainment that attracts nearly 3m guests a year.
Each fall, Dollywood holds a popular Harvest Festival and this year sought a family friendly, fall-centric addition to the autumn event. Park leadership decided on a pumpkin-themed evening concept to support the park’s Year of the Family theme. The new experience, Great Pumpkin LumiNights, is an outdoor installation of thousands of illuminated jack-o-lanterns, artistic sculptures, playful scenes, pumpkin-themed food and entertainment.
Since lighting would play a vital role in the evening event, Elation Professional dealer Stud

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South Africa - Lighting designer Joshua Cutts and the SOS Charity Fund raised money to help a student from the Tshwane University of Technology to complete his tuition.
“Daniel Meledimo, a young gentleman from TUT, arrived on our first day of Idols South Africa set-up and to see if he could assist and gain valuable knowledge,” says Joshua, who has worked on Idols for the past eight years. “Daniel remained with us for the full duration; every day we were there he was there. He never asked for any payment. He was very grateful for the knowledge and experience.”
It was evident that he was an extremely hardworking and dedicated student with the right temperate and someone who would clearly do well in the industry.
“After chatting to Daniel I realised that he may have to drop out university as he could not afford to pay his outstanding account

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South Africa - Production company Rapid Blue produced the eighth season of SA’s Got Talent, with event technical specialists Blond Productions teaming up with production design company Visual Frontier for the first time.
“We decided to join together to do this, using the strength of Blond Productions’ technical delivery and the strength of my design capability for television,” explained Joshua Cutts, lighting designer from Visual Frontier. “We thought if we joined forces it would be a good exercise and in the end, it turned out to be very successful.”
There were two portions to SA’s Got Talent namely the auditions hosted at the UJ Theatre in Johannesburg and at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, and then the main televised competition held at The Soweto Theatre in Johannesburg.
Mauritz Neethling, general manager from Blond Productions,

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New Zealand - Lighting rental company Oceania invested in 24 x X4 L LED heads from GLP that were used to support the British & Irish Lions’ rugby tour. Over six weeks the fixtures were ever present on all regional games and the three All Blacks tests.
At Auckland’s Eden Park, the company supplied all technical rigging, lighting, vision and sound equipment, technical management and crew, both in the venue spaces and the large fine dining 1,200 and 2,000-capacity party marquees on the practice ground, measured a colossal 400 sq.m. and 350 sq.m. respectively, requiring a lot of truss and expertise.
“The GLP X4 L and X4 Bars really impressed us both,” confirmed Oceania general manager, Simon Garrett. “The X4 L offers both workhorse and bling modes. A fast, very compact wash light with a source range from low to very high 10,000K colour temperature, giving so

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Australia - Professional lighting distributor Show Technology opened a new facility in Port Melbourne on 6 December.
The new location is three times larger than the previous office and has enabled the company to adopt new service facilities as well as expand their stock holding in Melbourne.
Over 150 guests toured the new premises and could test lighting fixtures in the new showroom, including the latest offerings from Claypaky, Martin, and Ayrton.
“Having a showroom much bigger than the last has allowed us to put all the latest gear and gadgets on full display and when customers and partners come through the office they are able to get full demonstrations of what we have to offer as well as gain an experience,” said Emmanuel Ziino, managing director at Show Technology.
Melbourne branch manager Paul Nicolaou says: “I encourage all lighting profession

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UAE - Event technical production specialist Maestra’s UEA based operation, delivered rigging, staging, sound, lighting and video / AV for Blend Abu Dhabi, a special event to relaunch the YAS Marina Formula One circuit meeting space.
Attended by event organisers, production companies, suppliers, social influencers, media and other organizations and individuals from across the event spectrum, all with different interests in the world of live events, the pressure was on for Maestra’s team on site, led by project manager Aaron Merchant, to deliver something unique.
They co-ordinated technical production for four different areas, the main conference space, the pit garages, the reception area and entrance and the afterparty staged in the chic, rooftop Luna Lounge.
A stunning sculptural set design for the conference session’s stage was conceived by the YAS

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USA - On 4 April, 1966 a local bluegrass band stepped up to the makeshift stage at a small suburban Washington DC restaurant/bar called The Birchmere. Few took notice of it at the time, but their performance on that cold April evening marked the start of an American music hall legend, giving rise to a venue that would count Bob Dylan and Bill Clinton as audience members and play a pivotal role in the careers of stars like The Indigo Girls, Alison Krauss, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lyle Lovett, Jerry Jeff Walker, Dave Matthews, Vince Gill, and k.d. lang.
Gary Oelze, the Kentucky native who booked the original bluegrass band because he wanted to boost traffic at his restaurant, still owns The Birchmere. He still comes to work every night too – and he’s still open to new ideas for enhancing his business. This openness was very evident recently when he okayed a lighting system

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South Africa - A grandMA2 full size, operated by Glenn Duncan, runs the musical Evita which kicked off at Johannesburg’s Montecasino Teatro, moved to Cape Town’s Artscape Theatre and will complete an Asian tour by mid-2018.
“This production of Evita has been publicised as the original production,” said Glenn. “We had a few of the original creatives out for the set-up, some wonderful people. It was interesting to see them interact with each other, people who have known each other for over 20 years and who are not scared of speaking their minds.” These included lighting designer Richard Winkler from New York, along with his associate Gary Echelmeyer and programmer Joe Allegro.
The current lighting show was originally built on MA in a visualisation studio and arrived in Johannesburg complete, based on the 1998 production. While untested on a full

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Argentina - Tecnica Vidal is the largest rental and production company in the west of Argentina, and one of the top five in the country. Founded by Miguel Vidal in the 1980s, it is located in Rivadavia the centre north of Mendoza province, internationally renowned for its wine production.
The company has 20 full time employees and supplies the full range of technical production services, encompassing lighting, audio, video, staging, rigging and power, a ‘single-source’ solution business model that has proved very successful. Their specialist areas are concert touring, festivals, music shows and rental / staging, and they also have a healthy roster of corporate clients and event venues.
The first Robe investment was made in 2011 / 2012 when the brand was still emerging in Argentina. This was the first year of Robe’s partnership with Buenos Aires based TSD Group as

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The Netherlands - drs. Down! is part musical, part drama, part medical case study and the brainchild of Dutch TV presenter and chat show host Ivo Niehe, making his debut as a playwright.
He boldly tackles some of the delicate issues associated with Downs Syndrome: judgements, prejudices and how it can shape and define lives, told through the true story of Pablo Pineda-Ferrer, who overcame the odds to gain a university degree in psychology.
Luc Peumans of visual design practice Painting with Light was asked to join the creative team and produce scenography plus lighting and video designs that captured the spirit of the performance and were also practical and tourable for the production, which launched at the DeLaMar Theatre in Amsterdam and is now touring through the Netherlands until January 2018.
A minimalist set was proposed, as key chunks of the narrati

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UK - On 24 November club and house music brand Miss Moneypenny’s, finally got their Night at the Proms with a celebration marking 25 years since the internationally recognized club brand began in Birmingham.
Held at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, full service production company Stage Production produced all the technical elements of the show and used an Elation Professional lighting system as an important element of the lavish visuals. Known for its flamboyance and glamour, Miss Moneypenny’s Night at the Proms was no different than a night at the historic club as house and dance classics were fused with music by the Birmingham Gay Symphony Orchestra in a sensational show.
“We needed to create a combination of big stage looks, nightclub vibes and a festival feeling and once again Elation were our go-to products for the show,” said Stage Production

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USA - The charity tour of Texas country singer-songwriter Cody Johnson in aid of those affected by Hurricane Harvey is utilising a number of Chauvet Professional fixtures.
On 17 November, the tour rolled into Beaumont featuring music by Johnson and multi-platinum artist Mark Chestnut as well as rising stars like Parker McCollum. Providing powerful visuals for the evening was a colourful lightshow anchored by Chauvet Professional Rogue, STRIKE and COLORdash fixtures supplied by Texas Stage.
“We wanted a look that was big, bold and colourful to reflect the spirit of the people of this area,” said Jimmy Davidson, Johnson’s regular lighting designer, who created the lightshow. “The Rogues helped us do this with their vivid colours and fast pan and tilt movements, while the STRIKE fixtures added a lot of punch. The lights fed off the music to create an uplifting at

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USA - Two-time Grammy Award-winning singer LeAnn Rimes is taking her Today is Christmas tour across the United States, with Bandit Lites lighting the acclaimed vocalist.
Lighting designer and LD Steve Hoover utilises Bandit Lites supplied Chauvet Freedom Pars in addition to the house systems, building each production to showcase and up light the stunning birch tree backdrop he’s accented with actual fresh cut birch tree branches, giving the stage a familiar but unique setting that evokes the holidays beyond just red and green.
“It’s kind of Christmassy- but more of a wintery scene, than strictly Christmas,” noted Hoover, “And then we do use red and green- yes.” And while touring means trekking the country and being away from home, Hoover says that being a part of such a creative production and surrounded by the industry’s best, including tour manag

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Germany - Digital Projection recently wowed stakeholders and audiences alike at the 13th edition of the Berlin Festival of Lights, where a number of its laser projectors were installed to enable video-mapping displays at key sites in the city.
With a renewed focus on digital at this year’s event, it was the biggest and most successful edition to date with in excess of two million visitors. Spread throughout one of Europe’s most popular cities bringing its sites of major interest to life in spectacular style, the festival is a leading light in the video-mapping world, raising the bar with its impressive showcase.
Every October, the festival transforms Berlin into a city full of light art with displays by national and international artists turning famous landmarks, monuments, buildings and places into a huge stage.
Working alongside Dutch integrator Pron

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USA/Europe - Korn lighting designer Thomas ‘Church’ Christmann is no stranger to the world of Ayrton. “On my first outing with Ayrton fixtures I was really impressed with the style, the output, the versatility and the beam options they offered me. I was very happy with what I could achieve with my last design so when the next generation of Ayrton fixtures were launched I jumped at the chance to make my new tour design even bigger, even more flexible and even more exciting.”
Two-time Grammy award-winning alt-metal band Korn was busy crossing and re-crossing the Atlantic this summer, firstly headlining the 17-date Serenity of Summer tour in North America, before crossing over to Europe for a festival run and then back to the US for further leg on home territory.
Church elaborates on the details: “There were a huge number of Ayrton DreamPanel-Twin fixture

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France - Paris’s U Arena threw open its doors in spectacular fashion this autumn when The Rolling Stones performed the final three European dates of their No Filter tour to sold-out audiences of 40,000 people each night. Eight RJ Lancelot 4K followspots playing a key role in the action on stage.
U Arena is now France’s largest indoor arena, and one of the biggest in Europe, and a prime host for the Stufish-designed set comprising four massive video walls over-reaching a part-canopied, 60-70m wide stage and 14m thrust which only just succeeded in containing the exuberant performances from these youthful rockers.
The Rolling Stones’ long-term lighting designer, Patrick Woodroffe and associate lighting designer, Terry Cook, of Woodroffe Bassett Design, specified Robert Juliat’s most powerful followspot because they wanted them as the prime source of front-o

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UK - Walk Like A Man takes audiences back in time to the freewheeling early ‘60s when the music of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons ruled the airwaves. At a recent run of the Mark Halliday produced show at Blackpool’s historic Grand Theatre, the cheerful nostalgic music was supported by a fast-moving upbeat lighting design created by Ollie Wilkinson of Arranpaul using a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures.
Anchored by Rogue R1 Spot and Q-Wash 560Z-LED moving fixtures, Wilkenson’s design captured the snappy devil-may-care spirit of the doo-wop era that transformed the musical landscape throughout the UK and USA.
“Our team at Arranpaul has spent a substantial amount of years building a relationship with the Grand Theatre,” said Wilkinson. “This was the perfect opportunity to collaborate with them once again with a

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UK - The Pantomime season is well and truly underway with dames, beanstalks and magic lamps taking centre stage up and down the country. As one of the leading suppliers to West End and UK touring theatre, White Light is supplying the lighting equipment to a range of pantomimes across the UK.
WL’s hire manager Jedd Hamilton comments: “For a lot of theatres, pantomimes are their biggest shows of the year. They are often extremely loud, fun and flashy productions; meaning they require a range of lighting equipment to achieve this impact. As a company, it’s our role to ensure we supply designers with exactly what they need.”
As usual, it’s a host of familiar titles that are gracing the stage this Christmas. WL is supplying productions of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Bournemouth Pavilion, Cambridge Arts Theatre and Salisbury Playhouse. The lighting designe

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USA - Chuavet DJ received the MMR Dealers’ Choice Award for Lighting Line of the Year for a fifth consecutive time. Presented by MMR magazine, the award is based on voting by music dealers across the USA.
“Chauvet DJ has had a virtual lock on this category – and it’s easy to see why,” wrote MMR in its report on the awards. The magazine singled out the company’s “innovative designs and value-oriented prices” as keys to its enduring popularity among music dealers.
“This award is especially meaningful to us since it is based on voting by the dealers who interact with our end-users on a daily basis,” said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet. “We’re especially proud of winning every year since 2013. The DJ lighting market has moved in many new directions within this time frame, particularly relating to events. As this award demonstrates, Chauvet DJ produc

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Sweden - Since 1999, Lights in Alingsås has been a yearly tradition, bringing together lighting designers and design, architecture, and electrical students to create multiple beautiful light installations. The five-week long festival is the culmination of an intensive week-long workshop, where the lighting designers and students work intensively to artistically illuminate various public spaces. The 2017 edition was another success, where SGM was represented on three different sites.
The seven installations light each site, all representing different emotional states.
With help from SGM’s G-4 Wash-Beam, site three portrayed the feelings one gets during a lifetime; with one end of the installation representing the past and negative aspects, while the other end represented the future with personal and professional growth.
Site four was an installation crea

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Australia - The Parrtjima Light Festival is held in Alice Springs, Central Australia, and showcases the oldest continuous culture on Earth through the latest technologies.
Through a spectacular world of light and sound, contemporary and traditional Indigenous stories and artwork are brought to life under the night sky on an unprecedented scale.
Illuminating the 300m-year-old MacDonnell Ranges and spilling into Alice Springs Desert Park, Parrtjima is an outdoor gallery experience presenting local artwork, culture and stories through interactive installations.
The sheer scale of the lighting on the MacDonnell Ranges makes Parrtjima Australia’s longest-ever light show installation stretching for 2km.
Mandylights were contracted by AGB Events, creative consultants and producers of Parrtjima, to tackle this light installation and th
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