Italian company Clay Paky featured heavily at this year’s Ruhr Reggae Summer in northwestern Germany. Simon Sonnenschmidt, who was in charge of the show lighting design and programming in the Dancehall Soundsystem Arena, for U-Concert Veranstaltungsproduktionen, used 13 Clay Paky Sharpys, four Spheriscans and four Supersharpys, together with one dot2 core plus and a dot2 F-wing. Sonnenschmidt explained: “The Supersharpy is the perfect light for illuminating the glass dome on the roof of the ice rink/Dancehall Soundsystem Arena. I created massive columns of light with the four moving lights in order to include both the dome and the surrounding forest…
Author: TPi
Avolites’ lighting consoles, dimmers and media servers have once again featured as part of Glastonbury’s vast and varied musical programme. For nearly 40 years, Avolites equipment has been found surviving the mud in each corner of the Worthy Farm takeover. This year the British manufacturer’s consoles and media servers were not only used on the main stages such as the Pyramid Stage, which was also powered by Avolites ART2000 dimmers, the Other Stage, John Peel Stage, West Holts and the Acoustic Stage but also Arcadia Spectacular and The Temple, and afterhours areas such as the Unfairground art field. Lighting Designer…
Production company Stage Tech has used the Milos M400 range of truss to realise custom installations in various public places in Hong Kong. Among their many creations is a hanging sculpture in the Pacific Place shopping mall for its 25th anniversary celebration and a hanging goat display at the PMQ GOat ARTventure exhibition gallery. www.milossystems.com
The tour that came as a surprise to many, has entertained Springsteen’s loyal fanbase across the globe, uniting those who have been with him since the beginning with younger fans that have just been introduced to the legendary singer. TPi’s Stew Hume flew to Munich, Germany, to meet the loyal men and women who arguably have the best ‘Boss’ in the world… It was nearing the end of the show when suddenly a sign being held up from the crowd was caught on camera. I want to sing and play with The Boss, it read on the giant video backwall…
Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting equipment to creative visual design specialist Mirrad for three stages at the 2016 Barn on the Farm festival, staged in the pastoral countryside of Over Farm just outside Gloucester. Known for housing many up-and-coming talents before their leap to the mainstream – past headliners include Ed Sheeran, Ben Howard, Bastille, Hozier – the festival keeps things intimate, with just 2,000 attendees perusing its three stages. Mirrad became involved in Barn on the Farm for the first time last year, and for the 2016 edition asked Colour Sound Experiment to come on board as the rental…
A procession of over two dozen bands performed on stage at the ninth annual Purple Hatter’s Ball in mid-June, but this three-day festival has never really been just about the music. Set in a pastoral region of north Florida, and offering sessions in yoga, healing arts and meditation, the Purple Hatter’s Ball is as much about raising consciousness as it is about pleasing the ear buds. For this year’s expansive lightshow, LD John Hollingshead sought out the help of the Rogue R1 FX-B LED fixture from Chauvet Professional. Hollingshead used 12 of the new Rogue fixtures, supplied by The Design…
Internationally acclaimed a capella group Pentatonix, famous for reworking popular chart hits in their own unique style, are currently undergoing a world tour. Production Designer for the tour is Sooner Routhier of SRae Productions who turned to Elation Professional’s ACL 360i beam effect light to create the look she wanted. “Because Pentatonix is an a capella group, we had to make sure there was some sort of scenic and lighting,” Sooner explained of her design and the ACL 360i’s role in it. “We use the fixtures as a lighting backdrop for effects and lighting scenic. We use every feature in…
Audio company Adlib has announced the addition of two new key appointments to its Scottish operation, with Barclay Dakers joining as Business Development Manager and Craig Hamilton as Operations Manager. Adlib’s commitment to business in the region was established in early 2015 and consolidated with the acquisition of EFX Audio in November 2015. Dakers and Hamilton will be working alongside General Manager Graham Cochrane and Steph Fleming, Head of Audio. The building of Adlib’s brand and customer relations in Scotland will be one of Dakers’ main responsibilities, as will connecting with past, present and future clients to provide creative and…
Dubbed “Motor City’s biggest rock event so far this year,” by the Detroit Free Press, the original line-up of Guns N’ Roses reunited on stage for the first time in over 20 years. Kicking off their Not in this Lifetime Tour at the Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, Guns N’ Roses performed a high-impact, hard rock show to a packed stadium. A lot has changed in the concert touring world over the past two decades, but Guns N’ Roses didn’t skip a beat. With a custom-built stage and scenic set equipped with video animation created by TAIT, the band brought…
On Saturday 2 July, L-ISA Live was deployed at Berlin Waldbühne for a concert of the most famous Disney film melodies performed by the Berlin Philharmonic. L-ISA Live is the latest technology from L-Acoustics founder Christian Heil, and aims to deliver a sound as natural as possible. It requires the placement of a frontal speaker system consisting of at least five arrays/loudspeakers, along with an L-ISA Processor that provides an object-oriented mixing approach through dedicated software: the L-ISA Controller. “To achieve optimum results, loudspeakers need to be installed in suitable spots to provide the desired localisation effect,” explained Sherif El…
Belgium-based engineering and automation specialist WIcreations has designed and fabricated a bespoke rotating system to hold and rotate five large scenic objects for the current Caos tour by hugely popular Spanish singer Malú. Niece of famous Flamenco composer and guitarist Paco de Lucia, Malú enjoyed her first hits as a teenager in the 1990s, which have been followed by a highly successful career in her home country. Her current tour lasts until November and will have played 69 dates in Spain by the time it concludes. WIcreations’ Geert Stockmans project managed the automation elements of the set after the company…
The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) has announced the winners of its prestigious Michael Northen Bursary Award at a ceremony aligned with the recent ABTT Theatre Show. The bursary is awarded annually to students or recent graduates of lighting studies in the UK who have demonstrated strong, imaginative and creative lighting design, and is bestowed in collaboration with Mousetrap Theatre Projects. It was sponsored this year by Electronic Theatre Controls and Stage Jobs Pro. The awards were judged by a panel comprised of ALD member Lighting Designers and Industry professionals from a variety of different disciplines and backgrounds. Mark Jonathan,…
Event Lighting Designer John McGuinness of Just Lite Productions chose a carefully tuned mix of Avolites products for dance event Cream Tours at Belfast’s T13 warehouse. The Avolites Sapphire Touch, Tiger Touch II and Fader Wing, Quartz and Ai Infinity media servers all featured alongside ART 2000 dimmer racks. Event promoter Notorious Parties welcomed the return of the iconic night with line-up including John O’Callaghan, Bryan Kearney, Will Atkinson and Anthony Probyn. McGuinness’ rig included Robe Pointes, Chauvet DJ SlimPANEL Tri 24 IPs, Martin by Harman Atomic strobes and PixelRange PixelLines. Alongside the Sapphire Touch, McGuinness networked the Tiger Touch…
American hard rock band Heart were joined by lighting rental specialist HSL on the UK leg of their recent tour in anticipation of their new album Beautiful Broken. HSL supplied lighting and rigging equipment and crew for the band, whose career has spanned five decades. The shows started with a special gig at the Royal Albert Hall that saw Heart accompanied by the 67-piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The same gig was filmed for release as a live DVD. “It was an honour to be involved in a unique collaboration like this at a magical venue, as well as to supply…
Manchester company dbn Lighting supplied lighting, LED screens and crew to the main stage and four other performance spaces at the 2016 Lost Village Festival, plus site-wide scenic and environmental illumination highlighting hundreds of organic artworks made with natural materials found on the site. It was the second year of the unique festival staged by Lost Ventures, with site and production management co-ordinated by Andy George, Jay Jameson and Ben Atkins. dbn Lighitng’s Nick Buckley project managed for them, commenting: “A huge increase in production values this year underlined Andy, Jay and Ben’s commitment to the event, and making it…
A.C.T Lighting served up big helpings of home-cooked BBQ with sides of the latest products from Clay Paky, Robert Juliat, ChainMaster and Eurotruss at a showcase special event during the recent CMA Music Festival in Nashville. “We wanted to give back to the Nashville community where we have a lot of loyal customers,” said Brian Dowd, Vice President Sales at A.C.T Lighting. “We decided to host a product showcase and barbecue during the week of the CMA Music Festival, the largest country music event in country music’s home.” A.C.T Lighting selected Nashville rehearsal studio Soundcheck for its showcase venue, where…
Justin Bieber, one of the most universally recognised pop icons of the 21st century, is enjoying the commercial success and critical acclaim of his fourth studio album, Purpose, the campaign for which includes an extensive world tour. Lighting for the tour was designed by Cory FitzGerald with the rig including Robe Pointes and two BMFL Spots being utilised as rear follow spots. It’s FitzGerald’s first work tour with Bieber. When he came on board, the production design created by Production Manager Chris Gratton and Creative Director Nick DeMoura was already evolving, together with video content produced by Michael Figge of…
Conceived and created by Italian DJ Benny Benassi to coincide with the prestigious Italian Motor Show, Benny Benassi & Friends has grown into a highly anticipated national dance event. Clay Paky supplied much of this year’s lighting technology, with LD Jerry R. Romani choosing to illuminate the fourth edition of the event using Sharpys and A.leda B-EYE K10’s, rigged on a hanging structure consisting of straight battens placed at different heights. The space was huge and the battens were also used to mark out areas adjacent to the one reserved for the live show, like the dressing room area, the…
