Daphne Ting-Yu Chu, a London-based Taiwanese Lighting Designer, made a significant impact at the PLASA Show 2023 in London with her enlightening discussion on the creative process underlying her narrative-driven approach to lighting design. Specialising in concert lighting design and interactive installations, she boasts a global portfolio spanning over 50 cities and contributions to more than 200 arena-scale productions. Beyond the stage, her interactive installations have graced international exhibitions, emphasising the use of lighting to tell stories, enhance viewer experiences, and forge connections with audiences. Notably, she collaborated with Lighting Designer, Cheng Wei Lee on Angela Zhang’s Fabel World Tour,…
Author: Jacob Waite
My first arena-sized production profile for TPi Magazine was David Byrne’s American Utopia at the-then Manchester Arena in 2018. Weaving through the backstage corridors, I was acutely aware of my privilege as a writer to chat exclusively to those responsible for curating the former Talking Heads frontman’s ambitious and technologically advanced production [see TPi #232]. Little did these battle-hardened roadies and creatives know, I was fanboying every minute. Talking Heads were the soundtrack of my adolescence – a gateway to afrobeat, funk and experimental music. The critically acclaimed Stop Making Sense (1984), directed by Jonathan Demme, is considered by some…
To reflect the growing demand for renewable energy-powered solutions in the live entertainment industry despite the UK government’s latest U-turn on green targets, ground transport specialist, Crawfords, has recently bolstered its hybrid vehicle fleet while restructuring its internal processes. TPi’s Jacob Waite discovers more. “Over the past five years, we have transitioned our passenger car fleet to either hybrid or electric vehicles, and by 2025, we aim to have a fully electric fleet, including our courier vans,” proudly stated Commercial Director, Patrick O’Sullivan, who oversees various departments within the family-run organisation. “We are currently assessing our own ability to reduce…
Production Futures has revealed its ON TOUR event will take place at Production Park, Wakefield on Thursday 28 September 2023. Featuring international special guest speakers, panel discussions and learning zones, the event will place emphasis on the theme of transferable skills across the production industries. Production Futures’ diversity partners will also play an important role on the day with Black Lives in Music, The Association for Black Event Professionals, Women in Live Music and The Network of Women in Events, all represented. New features for this years event include brand new ‘speed networking’ and ‘recruitment’ areas. The invitation-only Production Futures…
From 30 June to July 15, the limelight of contemporary music performance again focused on the shores of Switzerland’s Lake Geneva, where both iconic legends and emerging luminaries assembled for the 57th edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival. Meyer Sound was on hand for its 37th year as strategic partner and official sound provider, ensuring that the latest in audio technology was ready to connect artists to audiences at the two paid-ticket venues and 11 free music stages. Again this year, the Auditorium Stravinski hosted world-renowned artists spanning generations and genres, including Bob Dylan, Lil Nas X, Iggy Pop, Gilberto…
Following on from a Spring visit to Australia and New Zealand, Kurt Vile and The Violators descended on venues in the UK and Europe touring in support of the 2022 studio album, Watch My Moves. FOH Engineer, Aaron Brody began working with Vile six years ago, and as of last year, has been pulling double duty as Tour Manager. “We’ve been with Brit Row since I started working with Kurt when I was originally mixing monitors. He’s the first artist I’ve toured with overseas, and this has given me the ability to rent a production package,” he said. “I love…
When did you first join Mandylights? “I joined Mandylights in 2017 after doing a project with them in Australia which involved working on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for a Chinese New Year activation. We installed lighting on the bridge to pixel map the whole structure which took a couple of weeks to complete. It was the first time I’d stepped foot in Australia, and it was the first time I got to grips with the scale of the company. Richard Neville and I had been talking for a few years about doing a project together and this came along at…
With stars like Zeds Dead, STS9, Louis The Child, Subronics, Liquid Stranger, Walker & Royce, and Alesso, The Other Stage at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival served up plenty of EDM firepower. Only a high-intensity lighting rig could match the ferocity of this music – and that’s precisely what Chris Lisle provided with help from 325 CHAUVET Professional fixtures, supplied by 4Wall Entertainment. Lisle, the owner of Nashville-based CLLD, gave the visiting LDs for these artists all the punchy output they could ever ask for, but he didn’t stop there. The fixtures in his rig on The Other Stage…
The 2023 Secret Garden Party made history on Saturday 22 July, showcasing an unprecedented combination of fireworks, lighting and lasers alongside hundreds of drones – reportedly marking the largest multimedia airborne act at a UK music festival. The captivating drone display, titled Cosmic Wisdom, was produced by Celestial, renowned for its shows such as Eurovision and London NYE 2023, added a signature touch to the festival’s ‘Saturday Spectacle’. The commissioning of Celestial by SGP supports the festival’s pursuit of a more sustainable experience by adding cutting-edge and environmentally friendly drone technology to their traditional fireworks. Cosmic Wisdom fused the timeless…
Lighting Designer, Mike Swinford of UpLate Design aligned with Fuse Technical Group to debut Robe FOOTSIE luminaires for CMA Fest 2023. As a televised event, key lighting was critical. The four-day music festival – centred on country music, hosted by the Country Music Association at the Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee – marked the first time the LED lighting products had been used in the United States. Thirty FOOTSIE luminaires were positioned in a line along the front of stage. Swinford praised the product’s inbuilt diffuser: “They looked beautiful, very smooth, and worked perfectly for eliminating face shadows.” As the…
Sphere Entertainment has unveiled Sphere Immersive Sound, powered by HOLOPLOT, which provides crystal-clear, individualised sound to every seat in Sphere, a next generation entertainment medium opening in Las Vegas. Sphere Studios, which develops groundbreaking technologies and content, partnered with HOLOPLOT to create Sphere Immersive Sound – reportedly the world’s largest, fully integrated concert-grade audio system. U2’s The Edge said: “The beauty of Sphere is not only the ground-breaking technology that will make it so unique, with the world’s most advanced audio system integrated into a structure which is designed with sound quality as a priority; it’s also the possibilities around…
Lotta Schiefer joins Brompton Technology as its new Global Sales Lead. With a career spanning over 30 years, during which she has worked with global manufacturers such as Barco, Vari Lite and Wireless Solutions, Schiefer brings a wealth of industry knowledge and experience. Having started out as a lighting technician, Schiefer soon found herself drawn into the world of pixels. Over time, she transitioned from technical roles to more commercial and organisational positions in sales, business development, and people management. Most recently, Schiefer held the role of Operations Manager for broadcast and technical services at the Royal Swedish Opera. There,…
Sven Pelters has joined Lightware Visual Engineering as a Global Training Manager. Working from his native Germany, Pelters’s first task is to manage the opening of a Training Centre in the country that will provide training in strategic areas for the company including equipment demos, operation, and processes. Once up and running, Pelters will oversee the opening of further training centres around the world as Lightware continues to expand its global business. Pelters brings over 15 years of experience at Kramer Germany, most recently as EMEA Training Manager for the entire EMEA region, following several years working as Head of…
First Festival returned to the Fiera Del Mare, 70m by 120m summer stage at one of Italy’s most prestigious techno events, ranking among the top six in national importance. Following previous sold-out events featuring renowned artists like Nina Kraviz, Charlotte de Witte, and Richie Hawtin, the festival presented by RST Events treated the audience to a seamless 10-hour musical experience. The lineup included international DJs such as Ben Klock and Marcel Dettmann, CamelPhat (Dave Whelan and Mike Di Scala), Mathame (Matteo and Amedeo Giovanelli), and Fel (Giovanni Galvani and Alessio Lerma). An essential element of the First Festival since 2013…
The 51st edition of the Roskilde Festival, Northern Europe’s largest and longest-running celebration of music and the arts, wrapped in early July following seven days of the annual event’s distinctive blend of entertainment, artistic expression, and global citizenship. This first year of the festival’s second half-century also marked the sixth year of partnership with Meyer Sound, and in 2023 four of the festival’s stages were powered by systems based around the new PANTHER large-format linear line array loudspeakers. The first in a new generation of Meyer Sound loudspeakers, PANTHER offers dramatically reduced power consumption along with an unprecedented size and…
In the early summer of 2023 Herbert Grönemeyer was persuaded to return to Germany’s arenas, having released his latest (and seventeenth) album, Das ist los. For his latest tour, creatives Gunther Hecker and Rob Sinclair designed a production, including a footbridge and B stage. Hecker, who has been part of Grönemeyer’s design team for years, staged this with an impressive lighting rig that included over 220 fixtures from GLP, including impression X5 and X5 IP Bars. The general technical service provider for the tour was satis&fy AG, while airformance design created the decorative elements that characterised the stage design in…
In search of spotlights that can be used for diverse requirements due to their versatility, schoko pro recently opted for products from the Cameo by Adam Hall Group portfolio. The investment included OPUS SP5 profile moving heads, ZENIT B200 battery-powered LED outdoor wash lights and ZENIT B60 B battery IP-65 rated LED Par fixtures. “We had already used Cameo regularly in dry hire at a wide variety of events and were thus able to convince ourselves of the qualities of the spotlights,” explained Wilko Weiß, Head of Department Lighting & Rigging at schoko pro. “The OPUS SP5, with its two…
A variety of ADJ fixtures, including 32 moving head beam luminaires and 28 Jolt Bar FX multi-function LED washes were used to illuminate the main stage at Stadfest Monheim in Germany. With lighting, audio and video equipment supplied by local production companies, Creative Sounds Veranstaltungstechnik and LaserFrame, the stage hosted a wide variety of performances and presentations throughout the three-day event, including headline sets from Fedde Le Grande, Joris and Tujamo. Over the weekend of 16 to 18 June 2023, the city of Monheim am Rhein in Germany hosted its 12th annual Stadfest (City Festival). The free event featured entertainment…
