Europe - ADB Stagelight recently presented the Ocean for the first at JTSE in Paris. This lighting console, designed for theatres, opera houses and multi-purpose venues, immediately attracted a great deal of interest among sector workers.
The Ocean's most striking feature, as well as one of its main strong points, is its high-resolution touch screen, with a 70-cm-wide (27½-inch-wide) viewing area. It provides operators with full access to all functions and control of all parameters through a single screen, which greatly simplifies control desk ergonomics.
Due to its ultra-stretched display format, the console and screen itself are still very compact, both in depth and height. This means the operators have a perfect view of the stage from every angle, regardless of where they are sitting, and can place the console on small surfaces. Moreover, its shallow depth allows them to access the touch screen very easily.
Simone Capeleto, CEO of ADB, says: "We are thrilled with the interest this innovative console received. We got a lot of positive feedback, not just from operators using Hathor software. Many programmers saw the Ocean as a practical, modern tool for the present and future of their profession.
"The word Ocean conjures up the idea of a horizontal landscape, which spreads out in all directions, but still allows us to see the horizon,” he adds. “It is a metaphorical representation of what we intend to offer operators in practice: a way to let them see as many things as possible on a single screen and, at the same time, keep what is happe

Australia - For a company specialising in events, a festival that takes over an entire city can be both the best of times and the worst of times. Tasmania’s Dark Mofo winter festival is all of that for the Hobart-based Alive Technologies Group, but it’s a challenge the team delights in rising to.
Dark Mofo, created and run by MONA - Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art - is a fortnight of festivities which celebrates the dark through large-scale public art, food, film, music, light and noise, all held at venues which may be created or re-designed just for the occasion.
A huge amount of that venue staging, lighting and audio is taken care of by ATG and the company’s lighting project manager Nathaniel Collins was at the heart of much of the work.
“We do a lot with MONA so as a result of that connection, they brought us on, as the largest local supplier. We can always accommodate some of their more demanding projects,” Nathaniel says.
The brief for this year was responsibility for around 15 of the 18 stages scattered around the whole city, hosting a range of different performances. For such an important project, reliability and versatility are key to the choice of products, and the Alive Technologies Group chose Robe lighting fixtures for those very reasons.
For the performances at MAC2 (Macquarie Wharf Shed No. 2), the main venue, the fixtures included Robe BMFL Spots, Robin 600 LEDWash, and pointes. Also among the selection was what Nathaniel calls ‘a lot of’ strobes and blinders.
“The fixtures needed to be high o

UAE - Qasr Al Hosn is the oldest and most significant heritage site in Abu Dhabi. It was built after more than 11 years of restoration and the site has now reopened its doors as a museum to the public, showcasing the development from a community reliant on fishing and pearling to the modern Abu Dhabi.
Creative Technology Middle East (CTME) were on hand to deliver 9,750sq.m of projection for the historical event on behalf of client, People.
The Qasr Al Hosn Inauguration was opened by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi on 5 December 2018. The large projection show featured content supplied by Fly Studio, showcasing the UAE’s heritage and the history of Qasr Al Hosn Fort. The content was delivered across three buildings, the Musalla, the Cultural Foundation and the Qasr Al Hosn Fort. The projection covered such a large area of the event that the only way for the audience to follow the full story was from the central revolving grandstand which slowly rotated as the show progressed across the large site.
CTME used 34 Panasonic 31K laser projectors and 46 Panasonic 21K projectors installed into 20 bespoke towers strategically placed to cover all three main aspects of the projection areas. CTME’s senior project manager Dan Hughes says: “We use Panasonic projectors due to their reliability, brightness, optics and are a perfect product for the job in hand.”
CTME used its internal Octopus application to control switching of backup feeds on the matrix. Hughes explains: “Octopus is an application created internally by ou

UK - Pearce Hire regularly collaborates with corporate production specialists Hawk Audio Visual on large scale events. This successful partnership recently provided a circus themed entertainment and dining space for over 1,000 company staff and stakeholders at the BGL Awards Ball held at Manchester Central.
BGL Group is a financial services company based in Peterborough and the biennial event which celebrates and rewards staff achievements, was also part of the company’s 25th anniversary celebrations.
Pearce Hire’s project manager John Huson provided some insight into the support and co-operation between Hawk and Pearce Hire. “Hawk Audio Visual has been a client of Pearce Hire for over 20 years and during that time we’ve actually partnered with them on four previous BGL Balls alongside many other events which usually averages 15 to 20 jobs every year. Hawk Audio Visual was the main technical producer for the BGL Ball - we supported them by providing lighting, audio and staging equipment and a dozen crew members on site.”
The brief was a simple, yet challenging one - to produce an event which was both visually stunning and sounded great, and all to be worthy of the desired circus theme.
As well as project managing for Pearce Hire, John was appointed as the BGL Ball lighting designer, a challenge which he relished. With the evening combining many elements of dining, awards presentation, circus cabaret performance and live music, his design had to be flexible and adaptable to each aspect of the evening.
“I wanted to create a

USA - British musician and singer-songwriter Steven Wilson is about to wrap the 2018 leg of his To the Bone Tour (see LSi May 2018), named for his fifth studio album. Bandit Lites provided the lighting package for the production, helping to provide a layer to the visuals of the show while keeping the emphasis on Wilson’s music.
Lighting designer Tellson James credited the visual experience to the video footage produced by Steven Wilson, Lasse Hoile and Jess Cope, lighting the scene around the video and song accordingly, all the while paying special attention to the mood each song suggestions.
He utilises Claypaky Sharpy washes on the front truss, illuminating the band and Wilson, while the back truss is comprised of Martin MAC Vipers and Claypaky B-EYE K20s for backlight special and general lighting.
Bandit also supplied additional Vipers for cross light on the band, GLP JDC1 Strobes for effects and more B-EYE K20s upstage giving rear ground lighting behind the band. “The GLP strobes are great to use for their intensity,” says James, “and the B-EYES are great to use as they are so bright, have gorgeous colours and beam effects.”
“We began this tour in April and it’s been an honour to work with this organisation,” said Bandit Lites vice president Mike Golden.
(Jim Evans)

Belgium - The Jacques Brel musical La Vie Est Brel captivates a blend of classic and contemporary, both in its songs and in the powerful lighting design that supports them.
Created by Revolution Event Support, the design relied on the intense output and versatile performance features of 12 Chauvet Professional Maverick MK2 Spot fixtures.
“The general idea of our lighting concept was retro, going back in time to the period Brel was performing his shows in the 1960s and 1970s,” says Revolution Event Support’s Bart Faut. “As a result, the look of the stage retained a classic and minimal feel, with a lot of classic visual elements such as warm white lighting required to create the appropriate atmosphere within the auditorium in Ostend.”
Hung on downstage and mid-stage truss as well as stage left and stage right booms, the 440W moving fixtures created a bright classic concert look on stage. However, given that the fixtures are relatively compact LED units, they were able to deliver faster and more varied looks than would have been possible a generation or two ago. The wide zoom range and smooth 16-bit dimming made it easier to change coverage areas to provide visual variation during the show. These features also were helpful in focusing attention on individual performers like vocalist Olivier Laurent, who sang against the backdrop of a sumptuous old-school red velvet curtain.
“The Maverick Spots were the ideal tools to create the retro atmosphere,” says Faut. “We wanted to keep the feeling like it was 40 years ago, as famous

Germany - German Light Products (GLP) has agreed to merge with outdoor lighting specialist Ehrgeiz Lichttechnik, effective 1 January. Karlsbad-based Ehrgeiz and its employees will be integrated into GLP, with Ehrgeiz set to remain as a brand in GLP’s portfolio.
Steven Braun, MD of Ehrgeiz, says: “Since both companies are located in the same place and are active in the same market, there have always been points of contact. Ehrgeiz has been successfully developing and marketing products in an increasingly competitive market in recent years. This fact has not escaped GLP and there have been discussions as to how we can combine the strengths of both companies. I am delighted to be joining the GLP family, along with the Ehrgeiz team, and continue to develop great and innovative products.”
Udo Künzler, CEO of GLP, adds: “I am proud to welcome Steven and his Ehrgeiz team, and we look forward to working together. Ehrgeiz has developed a broad expertise in recent years and knows how to develop innovative products, and this is particularly evident in their outdoor products. The merger will expand GLP’s portfolio in areas where we see great potential and will make us even stronger in the coming years. Taking on Ehrgeiz is a win-win and will drive us further in our global growth strategy.”

USA - With a nod to Game of Thrones, the Vegas Golden Knights hockey team now enters the ice through a 20ft, 2,375-pound medieval jousting helmet accented with 60m of FloppyFlex Digital LED neon.
Originally conceived for the Stanley Cup, the team’s entrance is now a standard feature for all home games at the T-Mobile Arena. Designed and built by Water FX, the large helmet features lighting by Sean Guarino, with the FloppyFlex provided by PRG Las Vegas.
“Outlining the helmet to create a portal worthy of the team required something cooler than conventional LED tape,” says Golden Knights LD, Sean Guarino. “I wanted this to pop, and Tim Brennan of PRG suggested FloppyFlex Digital, which exceeded my expectations. Using the pixelated Digital RGB version, I can create spectacular multi-colour chases. The colours are bright, vibrant and warm, and installation was a breeze, especially with the help of excellent support from PRG and TMB.”
Guarino adds: “We use three ProPlex FloppyDrive Digital DIN Rail units to drive three 15-meter runs of RGB FloppyFlex Digital. This is way more than adequate to highlight the giant helmet; it can be seen from the farthest points of the arena and really stands out in broadcast shots. We use two solo spot washes to create the ‘eyes’ peering out from inside the helmet. To keep things interesting for the arena’s 18,000 fans, we use a grandMA console to create a different programme for each home game.”
Guarino’s company, Sexy Lites, specialises in lighting designs and programming for concerts an

Mexico - Lighting designer Pablo Gutierrez utilised 52 of Robe’s Pointe multi-functional moving lights for the launch of Mexican singer Fey’s new Desnuda (Nude) tour.
The tour kicked off in full-on style at the 18,000 capacity Arena Ciudad de México (Mexico City Arena) in the country’s vibrant metropolis.
Fey is a multi-talented Latin Grammy nominated singer, songwriter, designer, dancer, record producer, director and actress who has recorded seven successful studio albums and was massive in the 1990s following the release of her first album Fey in 1995. The proactive celebrity wanted to make maximum impact for her singing and live touring comeback, so her management team asked Gutierrez to create a suitably high impact production design for the show.
As well as being spectacular, the design had to be scalable for an arena tour which follows in 2019 and for potential festival appearances. Gutierrez was recommended independently by three different people for the job of designing Desnuda.
For this Arena Ciudad de México gig, audio, lighting, staging and all aspects of technical production - including video from La Catrina Films and rigging from TYM Riggers - were managed by Live Entertainment a company Gutierrez also runs together with Soho Avila, who was this high-profile show’s production manager.
The Pointes were arranged on a series of six trusses above the stage forming a trapezoidal shape - wider at the top. Each of these trusses moved in and out individually on an automation system.
“Fey wanted to r

UK - S+H Technical, specialists for LED visual effects, drapes and starcloths, supplied around 350sq.m of its LED Animation cloth and 450sq.m of standard RGB starcloth drape for the BBC’s 2018 Children in Need telethon, broadcast live on BBC One and BBC Two.
Featuring a star-studded line-up, the event raised over £50m for the 2018 appeal in what was the crescendo of this year’s fundraising activities for disadvantaged children and young people in communities across the UK.
The telethon production design was created by Alex Craig - working on his 10th Children in Need - and this new look for 2018 featured some threads from the previous design to keep a strand of continuity, together with some spectacular new elements including lots of LED and a large upstage LED wall, 14m wide by 5m high, which split in the middle and opened for performer entrances and exits.
“The look was modern, clean and now,” explains Alex, adding that his brief from executive producer Leanne Witcoop was to ensure the space looked integrated and a contrast from last year where there were three distinctive different performance areas on the one set.
The stage was all on one level, punctuated with curves and spheres which defined its general shape, complete with the spectacular long multi-layered curved LED screen set piece upstage, finished in gold shimmer disc material and outlined with LED strips.
This was flanked by two smaller semi-circle curved screens, also edged with several lines of LED - like a giant geometric spirograph design - and clad in chrome s

UK - London-based LD Dan Saggars had the opportunity to put Elation’s new Artiste Picasso LED profile to the test on the new Park Theatre drama, Distance in September.
Saggars required a flexible light that could both wash wide to cover the stage and isolate for dramatic specials and placed the units in overhead and side positions to achieve the desired result. “I was able to get massive coverage with the overhead units,” the designer states, “and then extremely specific specials from the sidelights that were able to perfectly isolate areas, people, even body parts.”
Distance, which played 5-29 September in the theatre’s intimate Park 90 space, is a powerful examination of the trials and tribulations of mental illness. Male suicide provides the context for the play, an intense dramatic experience played out on an express train and through a series of flashbacks.
With a snug setting and an audience in close proximity to the emotion being played out on stage, an important criterion was a muted lighting fixture. With the low sidelight units placed only about a meter in front of the audience, fan noise was a concern. “I sat as close as I could to a sidelight Picasso unit for one of the performances and was extremely impressed with how silent it was,” Saggars comments. “I was very pleased to be able to watch the sound designer put her ear right up against the unit in search of the source of loud fan noise, only to find it coming from the sole projector up in the rig.”
When laying down colour, Saggars says he was a

France - Pirates Paradise, a pirate-themed restaurant in Lille, offers more than an array of delectable dishes as well as an interior complete with shipwrecks, treasure chests, mysterious coves, and live shows.
Lending colour and excitement to this immersive spectacle is a Jocelyn Morel lighting design that features Chauvet DJ Intimidator, COREPar and EVE fixtures. Morel, whose impressive body of work includes the renowned Au Bonheur des Dames cabaret, was contacted by Grégory Devilder, the CEO of Public Address, the company that owns the 500-seat venue, to create a versatile lighting design that would enhance the restaurant’s shows as well as its unique themed flourishes.
“I know Grégory quite well and understood what he was looking for from the lighting design,” explains Jocelyn. “The lighting system here must do more than merely illuminate the room, it must also contribute to the theatrical looks of the live shows that happen several times during the dinner portion of the day. Of course, while doing that, lighting must also contribute to the mood of the setting by making the scenic elements come alive with colour and movement.”
For effects on the stage and throughout the venue, Jocelyn is relying on eight Intimidator Wash Zoom 450 IRC and eight Intimidator Hybrid 140SR fixtures. Colorising the live performances, as well as the scenic elements located throughout the restaurant, are six COREPar 80 USB and 10 EVE P-130 RGB fixtures.
A collection of 18 Ovation H-605FC fixtures is also used at Pirates Paradise for house light

UK - ETC has expanded its partnership with fellow lighting manufacturer GDS by acquiring its ArcSystem, BlueSystem and CueSystem product lines.
Under the new agreement, ETC will assume the global manufacturing and distribution responsibilities for ArcSystem, BlueSystem and CueSystem from August 2019.
David Lincecum, ETC vice-president of marketing, comments: “ETC plans to expand our work in architectural lighting throughout the world, and bringing these GDS products under the ETC banner is the leading edge of that strategy. We look forward to assisting customers around the world in their migration to architectural LED lighting. GDS have designed great products and we are pleased to take them over in 2019.”
Richard Cuthbert, GDS managing director, adds: "Following this new agreement together, we will see GDS move forward into a new, exciting stage of expansion. We are, as a company, more focused than ever before to bring new problem-solving products to our customers. We look forward to working with ETC in the future combining our technical expertise for the benefit of the industry."
Prior to this agreement, ETC and GDS had already been in a partnership where the American company had been manufacturing and selling the ArcSystem and BlueSystem products in North and South America since 2015. Until the latest deal takes place, customers should continue to use the existing GDS sales channels. ETC and GDS will continue to develop and service the for customers around the world.
ArcSystem is an award-winning range of modular, efficien

UK - With the festive season now upon us, theatre stages up and down the country are being filled with dames, beanstalks, flying carpets and glass slippers. White Light is once again suppyling a range of pantomimes this Christmas.
Pantomimes are many venues’ biggest production of the year, with these classic childhood stories often starring household names. An all-time favourite is Aladdin and, this year, WL is supplying several versions of the show, including one at Hackney Empire which is lit by David Howe. He comments: “Hackney Empire’s Aladdin evolved a lot in the rehearsal process, with a lot new music being written specifically for this production. My brief, as ever, was to enhance the whole look of the show and help the audience focus on each story-telling moment.”
WL is also supplying Aladdin in Cambridge, Crawley, Norwich, Yeovil and Swindon, with the Wyvern Theatre production starring EastEnders’ Adam Woodyatt. The lighting programmer for the show is Eden Thornton, who comments: “I’ve now worked on ten pantos over the last six years. They can often be hard work as you’re trying to create a big show in what’s not a great amount of time. That said, it’s very exhilarating. It’s also important to have a good team around you as well as the services of a reliable hire company; hence we try and use WL whenever we can.”
Other popular titles that WL is supplying include Snow White in Bolton and Malvern, along with The Wizard of Oz at the Birmingham Rep and Bolton Octagon. Cinderella is goin

UK - For International Day of Persons with Disabilities, also known as #Purplelightup, installation company CSR Lighting illuminated various of Microsoft’s UK internal offices as well as the exterior of their Reading office. For these eye-catching purple illuminations, CSR Lighting decided to use SGM fixtures.
“We have continued to invest and specify SGM products as they work for us in every environment we visit,” says Gary Willn from CSR Lighting.
“To allow the client to get the most from the #Purplelightup, we used SGM’s G-Profile Turbo to frame the client’s logo on the front of the building in the pure white available from the Turbo. We have had G-Profiles in hire since their launch and it made total sense to go with the new Turbo version of the fixture to have the extra light output from the same sized fixture,” says Willn. “The building was lit overnight, so as the staff arrived the next morning, they had the full impact of the installation. As expected from SGM, every fixture ran faultlessly.”
The exterior of the distinctive Microsoft office block was lit with six of the powerful P-10 lights using Elliptical lenses to give a rich punch to the purple colour across the entire building.
“The P-10 gave us a powerful output from a small footprint, without having the area scattered with lighting across the front of the building. This saved the client valuable parking spaces, which worked for us and the client,” explains Willn.
The big weather changes during this installation was no issue to the IP classified fixture

Nigeria - DWR Distribution recently joined with Livespot Productions to present a free two-day lighting workshop in Ikeja, GRA in Lagos.
The DWR team included Jannie de Jager and Michael Taylor-Broderick who presented the training, along with Duncan Riley, Kyle Robson and JP de Vernon, who were eager to be part of the adventure.
Topics covered included the objectives of stage lighting, controllable properties of light, light and colour theory, setting up and designing a lighting system, reading lighting plots and fault-finding.
“I loved the attitude of the attendees,” says Michael Taylor-Broderick. “They came thirsty for knowledge and were deeply invested in the training. I was humbled by their sense of gratitude towards us for the sharing of our knowledge. There is huge potential in the entertainment industry in Nigeria and I believe the industry, as a whole, have yet to realise what these capabilities are… I believe they are boundless.”
The experience was echoed by Jannie de Jager. “There is an incredible desire for information by the people of Nigeria,” he said. “I have never had a workshop with so much involvement and feedback from the trainees. The questions asked were good and extremely relevant to their situation and at times I had to think a little before answering! This enthusiastic involvement helped to steer the course in a direction that was pertinent to meet their needs.”
(Jim Evans)

Canada - Solotech has named Daniel Méjean as vice-president (strategic sourcing) effective 14 January 2019.
In this new position under the direction of Nicolas Lavoie, chief financial officer, Méjean will actively contribute to the performance of the rapidly growing sourcing department as a key player in strategic planning, as well as long and short-term alliance building with suppliers and partner.
Méjean has over 20 years of experience in strategic sourcing management and direction in large-scale companies.
(Jim Evans)

Europe - Every buyer of a ShowNET Ethernet Interface for laser control now receives Laserworld Showeditor for free. The professional laser show control software Laserworld Showeditor is suitable for live laser control as well as for timeline programming complete laser shows. It already comes with 250 free laser shows. It is possible to create own logos, texts or graphics and use the tracing tool to convert pixel pictures to laser compatible files.
The Laserworld ShowNET interface is a LAN interface, so no long ILDA cables are required any more. It has a built-in SD-card that ILDA frames and animations can be loaded to. The contents on the SD card as well as the pre-set patterns can be remotely triggered via DMX (16 bit X+Y axis resolution) or can run stand alone in automatic operation. ILDA Streaming is supported, too.
Laserworld Showeditor can be used for creating logos, texts or animations to be used with the ShowNET interface (ILDA export), but it’s also possible to directly live output with Laserworld Showeditor through the ShowNET LAN interface.
(Jim Evans)

USA - While many churches struggle to attract new members or keep current ones, Cascade Hills Church in Columbus, Georgia, has found success by keeping things fresh and presenting church as more than just an hour-a-week event to endure. With the knowledge that AV and dynamic lighting systems can positively impact the overall worship experience, Cascade Hills chose a flexible Elation stage lighting system to raise its profile and help grow its ministry.
Cascade Hills personnel called on local Columbus-based Absolute Audio Systems for a lighting solution that would enhance both the live and broadcast aspects of their worship services. “Cascade Hills is an active church that was in need of a lighting upgrade so they could improve the look of their weekly services and TV broadcasts, as well as special events like musical performances,” explains Todd Buckner, owner of Absolute Audio Systems.
The Absolute Audio team identified what production technology changes to undertake and delivered a dynamic lighting rig that complements the wide variety of events the church presents in its main sanctuary each week. “We did comparisons in the venue with various products and they chose an Elation lighting package because, simply put, they looked the best.”
The lighting upgrade in the 2500-seat main sanctuary, which came on the heels of a video, camera and house lighting upgrade late in 2017, consists of eight Platinum Beam 5R Extreme moving head beam lights, nine Chorus Line 16 LED battens, and 4 Fuze Wash Z350 single source PAR moving head luminaires. The

USA - Completed in 1915, St Paul, Minnesota's massive Cathedral of St Paul is the country's largest church outside of New York and Washington, D.C. Its Saint Cloud granite exterior walls are matched in grandeur by the American Travertine marble coating the 3,000-capacity interior, which reaches 175ft up to a dome nearly 100ft in diameter.
It's a big, reverberant space. "If you took the Statue of Liberty off its pedestal and set it in here, it would fit under the dome," observes Randy Keeley of St Paul AV systems integrator Metro Sound & Lighting. "And everything within this space is very reflective: Travertine marble all over the walls and floors, hardwood pews, different angles, glass-you've got sound literally going everywhere." These are not friendly acoustics for any kind of amplified sound, yet a sound system is the only way every worshipper can hear what is being said and sung.
It's a tough problem but all in a day's work for Metro Sound. "In the more than 40 years since Metro Sound's founding, we have performed installations in numerous churches and spaces with tough acoustics, so we understood the nature of the challenge," Keeley explains.
Keeley's solution was a left/right system of two Renkus-Heinz Iconyx Gen5 IC32-RN digitally steerable line arrays, which enabled him to keep sound off the walls and on the congregation. To preserve the cathedral's aesthetics, the loudspeakers were colour-matched to the marble.
Every IC32-RN houses 32 purpose-designed, 4-inch coaxial transducers, each with its own amplifier and DSP channel. Each

USA - Comedian Nick Cannon returned to his hometown of San Diego, which presented him with a plaque and declared an official ‘Nick Cannon Day’ in America’s eighth largest city.
The highlight of the visit was Cannon’s sold-out Wild ‘N Out show at San Diego State’s 12,000-capacity Viejas Arena. Featuring appearances by Eman Hudson and a bevy of other guest stars, along with games like Wildstyle and Let Me Holla from Cannon’s hit MTV programme, the show served up a full Wild ‘N Out experience, one that was made all the more intimate for his hometown fans by its open circular stage.
Although the stage setup strengthened the connection between Cannon and his audience, its open design created special challenges for lighting designer/technical director Marc Wasserman of 3 with1 Grab Productions. Wasserman, who has worked on the star’s tours many times in the past, addressed these issues in stunning fashion with help from Chauvet Professional Maverick and Rogue fixtures, supplied by Pro Systems Event Solutions.
“The Viejas Arena was designed for basketball games,” says Wasserman. “Having our show on a 360° stage here meant we had to do some inventive things to create a sense of depth without breaking up the fans’ sightlines. Our stage was positioned directly under the arena’s circular scoreboard. We used this positioning to our advantage as far as hanging the lights was concerned.”
Wasserman flew 60’ x 70’ box truss centred and trimmed just above the scoreboard. Spreading 12 Maverick MK2

USA - ABC News’ live coverage of the nation’s Midterm Elections counted on High End Systems LED lighting to do the heavy lifting for the November 6 broadcast.
LD Dennis Size of the Lighting Design Group was called in to ensure that the anchors, reporters, political consultants, statisticians and other guests were seen in their best light. To meet that requirement, Size specified 42 HES SolaFrame 750s and 12 SolaSpot 1500 automated luminaires from Main Light to supplement his conventional fixture package and to keep up with the continuously-changing action.
“I’m strictly a High End guy,” the New York-based LD explains. “I was once a strong Vari-lite user, but HES has made great strides with the advances in the Sola line. That is all I specify now.”
ABC’s senior production designer Seth Easter created the special two-story high set for ABC News. The bottom floor featured desks for 20 different anchor positions surrounding the centrepiece - a circular centre floor (of Roe black marble 3 mm LED) through which stunning 3D graphics were created for the TV viewing audience. The second floor featured ABC Live’s Digital Studio. Video walls spanned both floors. The entire production was rife with reflective surfaces, ambient lighting and moving anchor positions - all of which provided lighting challenges.
More challenges appeared a month before rehearsals once the studio rig was hung. Size couldn’t get machinery such as snorkel lifts or genie lifts back onto the video floor to make any adjustments for position moves in his convention

South Africa - Ultra Events is a technical supply and production company based in Cape Town, South Africa, owned and run by Costa Champanis and is the latest in several rental companies in the region to invest in Robe’s MegaPointe multi-functional luminaire. Ultra took delivery of four units initially with the rest to follow soon.
The company started commercial life as Ultra Sound, specialising in professional audio for assorted events markets.
Immediately the Pointes were onboard, the demand was so great that they upped the initial four units to 24 in less than a year.
Based on their success with the Pointes and the intense demand on riders for MegaPointes, they ordered these from South African distributor, DWR.
The first event for the new MegaPointes was lighting the runway show for the two-day #COSMOFest2018 fashion extravaganza, staged at Canal Walk Shopping Centre, Cape Town. Lighting designer JP Wilson integrated them with the rest of the lighting at the entrance end of the runway, where they were rigged to the sides of a trussing border running around a large LED screen.
(Jim Evans)

Europe - “I wanted a bit of additional craziness going on behind the band,” says Prodigy lighting and set designer Tim Fawkes. He is utilising eight Kinesys Elevation motors to move four special 4m long lighting trusses up and down, just upstage of the band, for the current European leg of their No Tourists tour.
The four pods in their home position made up two apex shapes to blend in with the rest of the structural trussing design. Each one is lined with four Martin Sceptron LED battens, five GLP JDC1 strobes, four Robe MegaPointe moving lights, four Showtec Sunstrips and five old-skool PAR cans with CP60 bulbs for a classic ‘ACL’ look.
All lighting and rigging equipment is being supplied by Blackburn based rental company HSL.
Having these pods automated on the Kinesys motors using a Vector controller enabled Tim to add lots of extra dynamics to the mayhem.
Another recently completed HSL tour utilising Kinesys featured an elegant and slick show design by Andy Hurst.
Andy’s design featured two identical large LED screens - one upstage and one downstage. The downstage one moved up and down on four Kinesys points controlled by Kinesys’ flexible and straightforward Vector software.
Summer and early autumn saw the Chemical Brothers on the road completing a hectic festival schedule followed by a week of high-profile headline shows, complete with another visual experience created by show designers Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall.
The fully integrated Chemical Brothers lighting and video show featured a large LED scr