USA - Harman Professional Solutions has introduced its innovative Martin MAC Allure Profile LED moving head. MAC Allure products were designed to support the special performance lighting needs of rental and install clients, including concert/touring, TV shows, corporate, houses of worship, concert venues, nightclubs, and cruise ships.
Also at LDI, Harman re-introduced the ultra-creative potential and ease of use offered by its Martin P3 Visual Control Solution, which is integrated into the MAC Allure Profile and soon other Martin fixtures.
The Martin MAC Allure Profile is the first fully-featured moving head to combine a proprietary, solid state RGBW additive colour mixing engine, a seven-segment pixelated beam and onboard P3 and DMX controllability that lets users swiftly alternate or mix between control protocols. The overall feature set further includes dimmer, strobe, color mixing, gobos, iris, prism, zoom, focus, pan and tilt.
“Until now, there hasn’t been a truly efficient way to integrate solid state (LED) color mixing into profile fixtures,” comments Markus Kluesener, Harman Professional Solutions sage lighting product manager. “We decided to address this need head on and asked our engineers to come up with a game changer. They came through with an all-new, proprietary, color-mixing light engine that exceeded our expectations for efficiency.”
Additionally, the MAC Allure Profile includes a pixelated beam divided into seven individually-controlled, full colour segments (pixels). This gives lighting designers new options for cr

USA - Signify has announced the launch of the new Philips Strand SPX LED WW, a high-output, warm white LED profile spotlight fixture which offers a powerful, energy efficient alternative to existing models. The SPX LED WW was officially unveiled at the LDI exhibition in Las Vegas.
The SPX LED WW is targeted primarily at applications such as education, houses of worship and themed environments. It has been designed to meet the requirements of consultants and specifiers looking for quality, efficient and reliable fixtures to serve as straightforward replacements for conventional profile fixtures. Dimmable either via DMX or via a conventional forward phase dimmer, it provides a smooth, stepless fade right down to zero - the perfect dimming credentials for performance lighting.
The SPX LED WW uses the latest energy efficient warm white LED light engine to produce an output equivalent to that of a 575W fixture. Its beam is crisp and precise, directing light only where it is intended. Thanks to the SPX filter frame system there is zero light leakage, so no additional masking is required. With reduced fan noise, the SPX LED WW is also quieter in operation than comparable LED fixtures.
The SPX LED WW uses the same proven, high-precision, high-performance gate and lens sets as the renowned Philips Selecon SPX Profile fixtures, with secure locking shutters, while other lens sets can be used via an adaptor plate. It also employs a Philips Selecon ‘box’-style gel colour holder. DMX connection is via familiar, robust XLR connectors.
Bill Richards, pro

UK - Canon recently held the launch of its new camera the EOS R at Shoreditch Electric Light Station, London. The camera giants invited journalists along to take part in an experiential experience in which they were transported to a utopian land 400 years in the future. The experience was produced by award-winning theatre company Les Enfants Terribles, known for their work on Alice’s Adventures Underground. Having provided the lighting on a range of immersive projects, White Light was called upon to supply the equipment for this particular launch.
The lighting designer for the event was Charlie Morgan Jones, who comments: “Canon wanted to launch their new camera yet do so in a way that was interactive and provided the journalists in attendance with an unforgettable experience. Les Enfants came up with the concept that a Canon ambassador was lost in the future and it was down to the invited journalists to ‘find her’.
“The set design team created a variety of spaces, including the Lab, Missing Persons Room, Museum of Curiosity, Worker’s Space and the Gym; each of which contained clues and potential pointers as to where the ambassador might be. The finale is that they find her in a space named Utopia and she does a beautiful aerial act which they photograph using the new Canon camera, thus allowing them to try out this latest model and all of its settings.”
Charlie’s own brief was to create a lighting design that not only helped tell the story and add to the immersive experience, but was also allow the camera to take the best ph

Australia - Versatility, value for money and a dash of pizzazz are some of the factors influencing the choices made by Sydney-based LD Peter Rubie when he is creating his work.
Peter Rubie has spent the last 11 years devising a wide variety of lighting design work for different types of performances but specialises in productions that are a hybrid of classical and modern/pop/rock music.
His lighting ‘choreography’ requires an intimate and up-to-date knowledge of what’s available and how it can be used to achieve different effects. He often uses Robe products, distributed by specialist lighting and staging equipment suppliers, Jands.
Robe has released a number of LED products in the last year and having been a fan of Robe’s previous LED range, Peter was keen to get his hands on them. ‘I programmed a big private lightshow launch for Jands when they released the Spiider and Spikie into Australia earlier this year and knew instantly I wanted to use them on a show. Soon after, he received a very special project from Ministry of Sound Australia to create a lighting spectacular for a performance of Orchestrated at the Sydney Opera House.
Orchestrated was designed to re-imagine some of the world’s most loved dance-floor anthems with a live symphony orchestra and a group of Australia’s most talented singers.
“Tim and his team had strong ideas of what they wanted, but having worked with them before designing MOS Club, they also trusted me to create something to emphasise and accent the music,” Peter says.

USA - Good feelings and creative energy are flowing freely on the Summer Plays On tour, which continues to fly high long past the autumnal equinox, with sold-out October dates everywhere from PNC in Charlotte, to the Grand Ole Opry, to the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Co-headliners Lady Antebellum and former Hootie & the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker are not only friends, they also occasionally share the stage on this tour.
This kind of connectivity and creativity are also evident in the tour’s shared lighting rig, which was developed by CLLD LLC. Used by the design teams for both Lady Antebellum and Darius Rucker to create two very distinct shows, the power-packed rig features Chauvet Professional Rogue and STRIKE fixtures, supplied by Upstaging.
“This was a special project for us,” said Chris Lisle, head of CLLD LLC. “We did the rig, but each act had their own team create their shows with it. Lady Antebellum had Fireplay, and Darius Rucker had Will Lowdermilk. Both did excellent work, so it was rewarding to see how different people took the same rig in their own directions and wound up in good places creatively.”
Versatility was top of mind for Lisle when he put together the Summer Plays On rig. It was essential that the rig not only be able to create different looks, but also that it do so quickly. “The task I was given was to create a unique design that could be transformed during quick set changes from one band to the other to give the crowd two different looks,” he said.
Helping Lisle meet this

UK - It took a year of negotiations, but 2018 saw Stonehenge host its first-ever live DJ set. And lighting creative Motion Mapping, complete with a pair of Green Hippo Hippotizer Karst Media Servers supplied by A.C. Entertainment Technologies, was tasked with delivering a digital video projection show equal to the brooding majesty of one of the Seven Wonders of the Medieval World.
Up until this happening, ‘playing Stonehenge’ had proved impossible. Deep, booming bass, large crowds, and ancient stones are not always a good mix and English Heritage, Stonehenge’s current protector, had turned down numerous requests from music acts. But one Alon Shulman was perfectly placed to make the gig happen.
Shulman is a special advisor to English Heritage and a business partner with DJ Paul Oakenfold. His live DJ set pitch ticked all the boxes: the show - including Live from Stonehenge, the album of Oakenfold’s DJ set - would raise funds for English Heritage; the event would introduce the Wiltshire monument, parts of which date back 5,000 years, to a new generation; the crowd would number but 50 lucky souls; and, thanks to ‘silent disco technology’ - aka headphones - the noise impact on the celebrated shrine was zero. At last, one of the ultimate scenes was set.
In contrast, though, to the serene setting, Motion Mapping had only 30 minutes between Stonehenge closing to the public and the guests arriving to get ready to dazzle. Speed and reliability were of the essence and Green Hippo and Hippotizer delivered exactly that. Using a pair of Hippot

USA - Elation Professional (stand 931) will reveal three new luminaires at LDI 2018 - the Artiste Monet, Proteus Profile and Smarty MaX.
The Artiste Monet is a full-featured, 45,000lm LED Profile fixture a comprehensive FX package, dynamic framing and a wide array of colours via its SpectraColor engine. The new SpectraColor array uses traditional CMY colours but also adds variable RGB flags for rich and vibrant primary colours. Elation says that combined with variable CTO colour correction, the Monet produces colours that were previously impossible to achieve from theatrical pastels to the purest reds, blues or greens ever produced by a colour mixing system.
The Monet houses a full blackout, four-blade framing system with unlimited indexing and continuous rotation control that allows shapes to rotate while morphing and transforming for transitions, projections and aerial effects not previously possible.
The Proteus Profile is a IP65-rated LED Profile fixture offering “outstanding projection quality in any environment”. Providing up to 45,000 lumens from an efficient 950W LED engine, the Proteus Profile is suitable for any outdoor application requiring superior output, bright and powerful beams, and quiet operation, as well as stunningly precise gobos and colours.
Elation will also preview the Smarty MaX, an extreme-output, beam/spot/wash hybrid moving head featuring the new Philips MSD Platinum FLEX 400 lamp.
(Jim Evans)

USA - City Theatrical is launching its new Multiverse wireless DMX system at stand 2815 at LDI in Las Vegas this week (19-21 October).
The Multiverse system can broadcast up to 10 universes of DMX data from a single transmitter while producing less radio energy compared to other single universe systems.
The launch will include the introduction of Multiverse SHoW BabyTM, City Theatrical’s fourth generation of the original plug and play wireless DMX transceiver system, and feature the Multiverse Module, Multiverse Node, Multiverse Transmitter, and Multiverse Gateway products. Discussions and live demonstrations of the technology will take place on stand every half hour.
Every product in the Multiverse system is built around a tiny radio, the Multiverse Module, which can carry up to five universes of data depending on the frequency used. Multiverse Transmitter and Multiverse Gateway products use dual band operation to simultaneously broadcast on different bands (2.4GHz and 900MHz in the Americas) to either spread their radio signals across these two bands or to avoid the overcrowded frequencies.
The system utilises a patent-pending method called MDMX which can reduce data transmission by over 90% while still allowing perfect fidelity. Multiverse also uses a non-interfering RDM system, MRDM, to allow both DMX and RDM to operate simultaneously.
The new system also features Auto Dynamic Limited Burst to automatically save unneeded radio energy by designating only the DMX slots needed to broadcast.
Meanwhile, Multiverse’s SHoW Key s

Spain - Starlite, which takes place at the Cantera de Nagüeles in Marbella, has been described as the best boutique festival in Europe. The music and cultural event, now in its sixth edition, has become the longest festival in the world, with more than 50 days of concerts.
It is an event for those who want to enjoy intimate concerts from global superstars in an incomparable venue. The stage itself is surrounded by 60m-high rock walls, creating a secret, hidden venue beneath the stars for the 2,200 guests.
All inventory, including GLP JDC1 hybrid strobes and KNV Arc fixtures, had to be brought up a steep hill to the former quarry, which houses a main outdoor auditorium where VIP attendees sit in eight-seater ‘Bubble Boxes’ and a second DJ area.
This was the first year that GLP’s Spanish distributor, Monacor Iberia had been involved, and they were brought in by the production company, Ilusovi Production & Services Show.
Monacor Iberia general manager, José C. de las Heras, comments: “We offered the GLP equipment for use by the different bands’ lighting designers, enabling them to modify their shows. Some LDs already had our JDC1 in their design, such as Ricky Martin, while all the other artist LDs were happy to use our kit.”
The JDC1 hybrid strobe has been designed in three sections, which can be controlled independently or as a complete synchronised unit, while the KNV comes in two variants, the KNV Cube and KNV Arc. Each housing can be combined seamlessly to provide massive fixture design options, and at Starlite the

UK - After taking Las Vegas by storm, Channing Tatum is bringing a new production of Magic Mike Live to London this autumn. Opening at the Hippodrome Casino in November, full service technical production company Hawthorn has been chosen to supply lighting equipment to the production.
Conceived and co-directed by Tatum, Magic Mike Live is a large-scale, live production show based on the hit films Magic Mike and Magic Mike XXL. The show will see the theatre at the Hippodrome Casino transformed into an intimate 325-seat in-the-round performance space where guests will witness artists perform a 360° dance and acrobatic spectacular.
Hawthorn is supplying lighting from its extensive hire range to meet the specification of theatre lighting designer Philip Gladwell. Having designed the rig for the Las Vegas production, Gladwell has modified it to suit the intimate nature of the new venue, whilst also adding in some exciting new enhancements.
“Despite being a smaller space, we’ve maintained the same big lighting motifs that we have in Vegas” says Gladwell. “This includes a large grid of 20 Robe Spiiders overhead which form a sort of visual ceiling to the piece. These sit ever so slightly lower than the rest of the rig, making them much more pronounced to the eye. Not only are these a necessary way to get top light to the stage but, by pixel mapping them, they’re a great way to get movement without flashing lights.”
As Magic Mike Live is very different usual theatre productions, audiences can expect a lig

South Africa - DWR Distribution’s Ole Boinamo hosted his first dot2 training session in both Tshwana and English at DWR’s offices in Johannesburg on 27-28 September.
The training was requested and sponsored by MGG with the aim to train crew based at Sun Arena’s Time Square in Pretoria, where MGG are the in-house technical supplier, as well as TUT (Tshwane University of Technology) students who are currently gaining work experience and training at MGG in order to complete their diploma.
“With most delegates residing in Pretoria, I presented the course in both Tshwana and English,” says Boinamo. “It makes a huge difference in understanding the functions of the console when you are being taught in your mother tongue. Learning becomes quicker, and more importantly, it creates an environment where students feel confident to ask any questions.”
“Once they grasped the concept, it opened a bucket of creativity,” explains Boinamo. “It was fantastic watching them come up with new ideas of what they could now do. This certainly was a rewarding experience.”
Mark Gaylard from MGG adds: “From our side it is very beneficial to get as many new entrants into our industry that are proficient on dot2 consoles which also lays a good foundation to start with the bigger MA console range. Thanks for offering the training and well done to Ole on putting it together.”
(Jim Evans)

Peru - Latin pop-rock artist Gian Marco performed three sell-out shows at Lima's Gran Teatro Nacional del Perú in October, backed by an array of Claypaky Mythos2.
The lighting was designed and operated by Gianfranco Di Vitto, who specified 35 Mythos2 rigged in a seven-line array behind Gian Marco and his band.
At the core of Di Vitto's design were powerful beams of striking colours, creating fast-moving shapes and patterns on the stage.
"I needed a versatile fixture that would allow me to create a different look for each song - one that would really wow the audience," explains Di Vitto. "The Mythos2 offers a high intensity output with incredible beam quality."
Behind the Mythos2 rig, Di Vitto - who has been Gian Marco's lighting and set designer for 25 years - specified 27 LED panels that loomed above the stage, hung in erratic patterns.
"The light beams had to be able to cut through the brightness of the large amount of video wall space, and it goes without saying that the Mythos2, with their outstanding light beams, did just that," he says. "When the Mythos2 started to move, along with the LED video panels, seemingly changing the shape of the stage, they created a big visual impact. In fact, it made the crowd cheer.”
"I love the variable angle of the spot,” he continues. “I can have a wide-angle spot and a very sharp beam in a single fixture. Its CMY colour mixing is a perfect tool, with smooth fade changes. Mythos2 is the reliable choice because of its smooth performance and high intensity output. I think it's the best fi

USA - Hot on the heels of the release of SolaFrame 3000 in August, High End Systems will launch the SolaSpot 3000 automated luminaire at LDI this week. Offering the same performance as the SolaFrame 3000, the new SolaSpot 3000 is engineered for designers that require “unprecedented pattern and effect possibilities as well as incredible brightness”.
The SolaSpot 3000 delivers over 37,000lm and features three gobo wheels for a total of 21 patterns, graphic and glass textured animation wheels, light and heavy frost, three-facet and eight-facet prisms, aerial effects plus a full feature set.
HES general manager Becky Koester comments: “We are excited to bring this new luminaire to our Sola Series family. Customers that don’t require the framing capabilities of the SolaFrame 3000 now have a high-powered option with the largest effects selection to date. It further supports our commitment to provide a broad offering to both the production and installation markets.”
LDI visitors will also get a sneak peek at High End Systems’ SolaFrame 1000, a new mid-level framing fixture scheduled to launch later this year. Koester adds: “With the SolaFrame 1000, we are addressing customer demand for this class of fixture that compliments the SolaFrame 750. With 19,000 lumen output and a secondary gobo wheel onboard, the SolaFrame 1000 fills a crucial space in our product offerings.”
(Jim Evans)

USA - At this year’s LDI show, CAST Group (stand 2255) will demo the latest from wysiwyg, BlackTrax and also present a new native software for broadcast. The company will also launch its global training programme.
CAST will present release R41 of wysiwyg in the USA for the first time. On stand, the new BlackTrax V2.3.3 will be at the heart of a presentation designed by Dream Laser that will combine tracking with lighting, media interactivity, moving projection mapping, 3D positional audio and camera tracking for broadcast. Lighting for the demonstration - which will include the opportunity to get hands-on and will feature live performances and interactive games - will be powered by Luminex; media support will come from disguise and Notch; L-Acoustic will provide 3D positional audio; and projectors and PTZ cameras will be from Panasonic.
Meanwhile CAST’s new broadcast software, code-named Herald and powered by BlackTrax, will also be demo'd.
Andrew Gordon, director of business development at CAST Group, comments: “This is the first time that we’ve shown the software publicly. We’ve been testing it with focus groups in the broadcast and production market - and we’ve had an overwhelming response.
“Our goal with Phase 1 of the system is to aid in the automation of broadcast with the function of not only camera control, but also to become an aggregate control suite for all cameras on a production as well.”
“Herald’s node-based editor is a user’s dream. For the first time in broadcast software dedicated to cameras, the qu

USA - The Claypaky Sharpy Plus and the Claypaky Axcor Spot 400 will make their international debut at LDI 2018.
Sharpy Plus is billed as “the first true 100% hybrid unit, able to be a perfect beam light and a perfect spotlight”. It fits a new Osram Sirius 330W X8 lamp and weighs only 21.6kg (47.6lb). All its functions are extremely quick. A linear 3° to 36° (1:9) zoom covers the entire range linearly, both in Spot mode and in Beam mode.
The Axcor Spot 400 provides the medium-power applications with compact, bright, LED moving spotlights, complete with “every device you need for exceptional projected visual effects”.
The Axcor Profile 600 stands out for its versatility, its high-level performance and the superior quality of its light. The luminous efficiency is among the highest for this power category, and can be further increased by about 25% if necessary thanks to the Boost mode, says the company.
The Hepikos is an innovative hybrid wash/beam light that combines low power consumption with colour quality, without compromise, in its highly compact body.
(Jim Evans)

Europe - Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting, video and rigging equipment plus crew to the recent Tash Sultana UK and European tour.
The Australian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is wowing fans worldwide with the debut album Flow State and enigmatic one-person show.
Detroit based lighting designer Cam Anderson started working with Tash at the end of 2017 during a US tour, and evolved the current stage design with the artist to compliment the performance and style.
It includes a distinctive flown triangular truss upstage, together with a series of staggered video panels behind the centre-stage position which bring structure and form to the performance space. These elements were crafted working closely with Tash and her international production crew.
The resulting set is highly visual, and the rig can be up/down-scaled to deal with venues up to 6000-capacity and still fit expediently in one truck.
Cam then added wing trusses to reinforce the triangular shape, together with two side trusses on stage left and right.
When it came to populating the trusses with lighting units, he needed fixtures and positions to cover all eventualities, from intimate moments to ripping guitar solos and other dramatic and dynamic peaks, and “an arsenal of eye candy” to amaze the audience without taking the focus off Tash.
There were 18 Robe Spiiders on the rig - six on the main triangle, four on each of two short trusses that were sub-hung each side of it, and two a side on the side trusses.
For profiles, he chose

Australia - Adelaide Oval has been described as one of the most picturesque Test cricket grounds in Australia. Its importance on the international cricket circuit is undisputed, being headquarters to the South Australian Cricket Association (SACA). Its sporting credentials extend to other areas, with South Australian National Football League (SANFL) also calling it home and the venue playing host to Australian rules football, rugby league and union, soccer and tennis, as well as regularly holding concerts.
It has three stands, the Western, Eastern and Southern or Riverbank Stand, all constructed as part of a major refurbishment completed in 2014. The Riverbank Stand boasts a new L-Acoustics Kara system, supplied by Jands, L-Acoustics certified provider distributor for the region. The system delivers improved coverage and intelligibility, all without the need for expensive acoustic treatment.
The 14,000-capacity Riverbank Stand’s 12 stories are covered by a single curved roof which has complex rigging requirements. US-based acoustic design and consulting firm Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams (WJHW) were brought in to recommend a system for its upper tier audience areas and determined that Kara would be the ideal solution. With a throw distance requirement in excess of 50m in some audience areas, Kara provides coverage and SPL for the entire upper tier audience in a high performance yet lightweight package.
Supporting WJHW designer Greg Swindle, the L-Acoustics Applications team provided electromechanical and system support, with L-Acoustic

USA - Ayrton will highlight new products at LDI 2018, including the newly launched BoraS and KhamsinS fixtures, alongside previews of its new Diablo-S, Diablo-TC, Merak-S and Merak-TC automated fixtures. The new products can be seen on Booth 1139 where Ayrton will be showcasing them in its now much-anticipated lightshow, alongside its exclusive US distributor, A.C.T. Lighting. The Ayrton portfolio will be also on display on Booth 2105, represented by Theatrixx Technologies, Ayrton’s exclusive distributor in Canada.
Launched just last month at PLASA London 2018, BoraS is Ayrton’s exciting new high output, low power LED washlight, complete with gobo projection and framing capabilities for stunning aerial effects. Bora-S’s extreme optical efficiency delivers an output of 38,000lm from an 8000K white LED engine using just 750W to “surpass any other LED fixture in its class and 1500W/1700W discharge fixtures at a fraction of the power consumption”, says Ayrton.
Bora-S is an ideal washlight for large scale venues, outdoor and indoor arenas, being fully featured with a 178mm PC front lens for optimal performance, a 8:1 zoom delivering a beam range of 8° to 64°, full field framing, an iris, a rotating gobo wheel, two colour wheels and a full CMY + CTO colour system with a CRI greater than 70 – with smooth transitions at all focal lengths.
Also launched at PLASA London 2018, Ayrton will be showing its brand new Khamsin-S automated LED profile spotlight. Billed as the brightest LED profile spotlight on the market, outputting 39,000lm, Kh

Europe - On Tuesday 9th October, the EU released a revised version of their proposed new Ecodesign and Ecolabelling Lighting regulations. These are the intended final versions of these regulations.
The full texts are available to read via the links below.
From an entertainment lighting perspective, this version is almost entirely unchanged from the draft published in July. There is a minor addition of a new exemption for some specialist fluorescent lamps used in the film industry. And the exemptions established in the July draft, which cover many areas of entertainment lighting, remain in place.
However, this draft does not address any of the issues that the entertainment lighting industry’s Ecodesign Task Group have been trying to raise with the EU since the publication of the July draft.
This means that some key issues remain:
- requirement for lighting fixtures to use less than 0.5W of power in standby mode (when not emitting light), which is not achievable for DMX-controlled lighting fixtures that have to respond immediately to cues.
- inability of high-powered white LED sources to meet the efficiency requirements because of the combined impacts of the Auger effect, thermal effects and in-built optics. Many such sources are far from achieving the regulation limits.
- the definition of green used in colour-tuneable (additive colour mixing) fixtures, which is not set at the right point for the most efficient design of colour mixing systems.
- a number of specific lamp bases and white light sources for which exemptio

UK - At the recent 30th birthday celebrations for HSL at the company’s Blackburn HQ, Lucid Technologies delivered the gifts of innovation and visual impact for HSL MD, Simon Stuart and his hard-working team who, across the span of 30 years in the lighting industry, have provided the very same gift to others.
Lucid’s contribution sparked two main areas of the event. Delineating the event’s expo space with picture-frame gallery videowalls to highlight the companies supporting the event, the team also created an immersive and interactive demonstration of the latest in video technology, for attendees on the tour of HSL’s impressive 165,000sq.ft premises.
On opposing walls of the expo space, the vibrant backdrop was created on two 60m LED video walls. Content was supplied to the 60m x 2m LED displays from a Disguise GX2 media server running animated backdrops, which enabled promotional video supplied by the exhibiting companies to be placed within the ornate 3.9mm static picture frames.
In the immersive feature area, Lucid amazed attendees with a wider range of its capabilities, integrating automated movement into Notch-created 3D virtual scenarios, demonstrating their proficiency with Blacktrax, the six-dimensional infrared motion tracking system.
The full 3D video scenes were delivered from the Notch-hosting Disguise GX2 media server via five 12K projectors: two focused on the main wall, one on each side wall, with the fifth providing overall fill on the main wall for greater coverage.
Also rigged were six Blacktrax cameras set up

USA - Victor Zeiser of Squeek Lights is using Elation Professional’s new DARTZ 360 LED moving head along with Elation Protron 3K Color LED strobes to support the diverse sounds of hardcore rock band Beartooth on their current North American tour. The headlining tour, in support of the band’s new studio album Disease, kicked in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and plays a packed schedule of dates, concluding in Columbus, Ohio, next month.
Zeiser, who first met the hardcore rockers when they were an opening act for one of his other clients, Silverstein, and had put together a small timecoded show for the Ohio-based group’s last headliner tour, was well familiar with the band. So when Beartooth frontman Caleb Shomo and company came looking for a designer for their fall Disease tour, Zeiser jumped at the opportunity. “The band wanted to get more serious about their lighting and because they were familiar with my work they came to us looking for full service,” said Zeiser, founder of New York-based rental company Squeek Lights, lighting vendor for the tour.
“I was waiting for an LED beam fixture with good colour mixing and intensity and found it in the DARTZ and its narrow beamy look,” said Zieser, who uses the fixture’s 3-degree aperture to create classic ACL beam looks. When the tempo slows he accesses the fixture’s effects package of gobos and prisms to create big looks. “They are bright enough to stack a prism, gobo and colour and it maintains its power and still cuts through,” he said.
The design covers a broad extreme o

USA - Twelve months on from the launch of LightShark at the 2017 LDI show, WORK PRO returns to Las Vegas to launch a completely new range of control hardware: Pyron.
Bringing together the company’s established background in digital audio and lighting control with their R&D team's experience of remote firing systems and pyrotechnic control, WORK PRO's Pyron range comprises several wirelessly controllable devices designed to provide event organisers and touring companies with complete control of stage effects and hardware ranging from stage pyrotechnics, audio and lighting effects to CO2, flame and cold fire spark machines.
At launch, the Pyron range includes an advanced suite of control software, two different DMX-equipped, battery-operable hardware consoles (the FDC W and the more fully-featured FDC A) and the FD P1 wired or wireless trigger pad, all of which are built into easily portable but durable IP67-rated water-resistant ABS transport cases for use in demanding event environments, indoor and out. The consoles connect to M2 pyrotechnic firing modules; up to 64 M2 modules can be used with each console, and each M2 can launch up to 16 fireworks simultaneously.
The consoles form the command centre of any Pyron system; both may be mains- or battery-powered for stage use, in the latter case utilising twin rechargeable 12V lead acid batteries with enough power to last several shows of average length.
“Just as LightShark took the best aspects from the previously incompatible concepts of large-scale lighting consoles and affordable smal

USA - At LDI 2018, ArKaos will preview its powerful and flexible MediaMaster 5.4 and GrandVJ 2.6 video and media control platforms. Both now offer two significant new features: TrackDJ is designed for the seamless synchronization of video clips with a live DJ or to beat-match short video loops; while Full Fixture Control has also now been added to the ArKaos Video Mapper
ArKaos has had a busy and productive summer out and about at festivals and shows, talking to numerous lighting and video operators, DJ’s VJ’s, LDs etc., working in many different environments, and several have also visited ArKaos’s base in Brussels.
Their comments and feedback have helped shape the latest product developments and ensure that ArKaos keeps in touch and on-trend with what the fast-moving world of show visuals is demanding.
TrackDJ is a straightforward solution for better integration between DJs or LJs and their live visuals, while Full Fixture Control is a serious advancement for lighting designers and operators, allowing them to control LED screens / surfaces and treat them just as if they are lighting fixtures.
The first adopter of TrackDJ is ShowKontrol which allows GrandVJ or MediaMaster to communicate with the op level of Pioneer DJ players which are one of the universal industry standard brands.
ArKaos will also show Mixxx at LDI, the popular free open-source DJ software application, which has been updated to send this TrackDJ information.
Other companies in the DJ technology industry have already voiced their commitment to adopting Tra

Croatia - The Istrian National Theatre is located in the medieval port city of Pula on the Istrian peninsula in Croatia and is one of the most important cultural institutions in the region, renowned for the quality and innovation of its productions.
It has a 720-seat main auditorium and they produce around 10 new works per year, mainly drama or modern dance, plus one children’s production. The original building dates back to 1871 when the theatre opened. It was reconstructed in 1918 and extensive further restoration and upgrade work was undertaken in 1989 including the installation of a new fly tower, which made it capable of staging far more ambitious productions.
Recently, the theatre has invested in Robe moving lights – following a growing trend for theatres not just to look for more flexible and adaptable options, but also to look at LED and other long-term energy saving options that involve greater cost efficiency.
Dario Družeta is the venue’s technical director for Lighting. He is also a lighting designer and responsible for lighting most of the shows there. He explained that over the last three years they have purchased a number of different Robe fixtures - LEDWash 600s, Actor 6’s (a static version of the LEDWash 600) MMX Spots, DL4S Profiles and ParFect 100s… all of which have been delivered by Robe’s Croatian distributor, LAV Studio.
The theatre is part state part city funded, and it also has to make a working profit, so budgets are tight and they have to make their cap ex investments judiciously each year.
The Istr