USA - Bandit Lites has announced the hiring of Allen Deneau as its newest client representative.
Deneau brings decades of experience having previously owned a Chicagoland production company as well as years on the road as the lighting director for Grammy-award winning country music group, Diamond Rio. As a client representative for Bandit Lites, he’ll utilise his understanding of touring productions to provide his clients product and personnel solutions to ensure their creative endeavours are achieved.
“I’ve used Bandit gear on numerous occasions,” shared Deneau. “I was always impressed with the cleanliness, the quality and reliability of the gear I received from Bandit. Above the quality of the gear was the quality of the people Bandit sent. They were professional, dependable, ready to work and knowledgeable.”
“We are very happy to have Allen join the family,” said Bandit founder and chair Michael T. Strickland. “Beyond everything else is his amazing demeanour and personality. Couple that with a lifetime in the industry and a vast technical knowledge, as well as a large number of relationships, and you have a wonderful client rep.”

UK - Bellowhead’s UK tour was an 18-city voyage that celebrated the tenth anniversary of the band’s Broadside album.
Reflecting the nautical theme of that seminal recording, the stage and backdrop on this tour were adorned with evocative seafaring scenery, like barrels, decanters, and wooden decking platforms, which, combined with multi-coloured stage blocks, created what one critic called “a visual delight”.
Contributing to this engaging panorama was a very flexible and dynamic Martin Dudley design that featured Chauvet Professional Rogue R2X Wash fixtures that were recently added to the inventory of Martin’s Lights Ltd.
Flown over mid-stage, the RGBW moving fixtures were used to enliven the stage’s 12m wide by 6m high backdrop with a variety of rich colours, a task they had no trouble accomplishing thanks to their high output. ”I had a specific lighting objective that needed to be met on the tour,” said Dudley, “and the R2 Washes were the right tool to accomplish it. In the past, I’ve used these fixtures as part house kits on a number of occasions and have been very happy with them. The R2X has greatly increased the versatility of my kit.”
Dudley needed all of the versatility he could muster up on this sold out tour. Made up of 11 musicians playing more than 20 different instruments as well as contributing vocals, Bellowhead’s performance draws on a deep sea of varied creative influences, as their music moves from traditional dance tunes, to folk songs and shanties; all supported at times by a four-piece brass

Europe -Hip-hop artist and producer Kid Cudi recently wrapped the European leg of his To the Moon 2022 World Tour with dates in Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and Milan that featured an extensive Ayrton lighting rig. ACT Entertainment, Inc. is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton products in North America.
Lighting director and programmer, Austin Schneider, who does lighting design and programming for US-based full-service production company, Raw Cereal, chose Ayrton Khamsin LED profiles and MagicBlade R LED moving lights for the European shows. The dates followed the North American leg of the tour and a stop in Japan. During the same period, Kid Cudi released his eighth studio album, Entergalactic, the companion to an animated special of the same name.
For the European tour, Schneider handled lighting only, modifying the design of the just-concluded North American tour. “We kept the idea of the North American run and simplified it with a rig of Ayrton fixtures that always have really great colour, look good on camera and punch through the video,” Schneider explains. “Kid Cudi likes to connect with his fans, so the show focused on IMAG with two vertical screens with Notch and no other content.”
As the name of the tour suggests, the show had a space theme with the European dates “embodying the feel of walking out of a spaceship,” Schneider says, “with low-lying fog, pixels with creative effects and big shapes for the audience. The Ayrton fixtures delivered space-themed looks that enabled fans to be in the same w

Europe/Singapore - Robe lighting starts 2023 with the announcement of two new roles boosting its international management team, both looking ahead and eyeing the company’s expansion over the next several years.
Bram De Clerck adds ‘key account manager Europe’ to his existing ‘business development manager’ detail, while Jens Poehlker takes on a new role as regional sales manager for Asia on top of his position as MD for Robe’s Singapore office.
This follows the announcement at the end of 2022 of Ingo Dombrowski as Robe’s new international sales director, while Harry von den Stemmen became key global account manager as well as taking on a more ambassadorial role in the company.
Like Ingo and Harry, both Bram and Jens have already been integral to the growth and success of the Robe operation for some years.
Bram’s new role as key account manager for Europe will include assisting and following up of the day-to-day business with distributors across Benelux, Italy, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, and he will continue the co-ordinating and management of high-profile club projects in China.
As BDM, he will focus on specifications and working closely with lighting and visual designers, production managers and promotors to realise the creative goals of their projects. He will also remain in close contact with individuals and companies seeking to advance Robe’s global vision and horizons in harmonious and innovative ways.
Prior to joining the Robe international team full time in 2017, Bram worked for leading Benelux sal

Slovenia - For the second year running, a lighting rig comprised exclusively of ADJ fixtures was used to illuminate the 2022 Miss Earth Slovenia pageant. Following an online only event the previous year, due to the global pandemic, the 2022 contest took place in front of a live audience of over 500 people.
Seventy-two ADJ lighting fixtures – including the new Focus Profile and Focus Flex moving head luminaires – created a dazzling lightshow while also lighting the contestants for the judges. The event’s production also incorporated an ADJ LED video wall, ADJ haze machines and the lighting was all controlled using ADJ’s myDMX 3.0 software.
Founded in 2001, the Miss Earth Pageant is an international contest with the purpose of ‘utilizing the beauty pageant entertainment industry as an effective tool for the promotion of environmental awareness’.
Culminating in a worldwide final in Manilla, the Philippines, featuring delegates from 90 different countries, the contest began with regional competitions in participating countries. Lea Prstec was crowned Miss Earth Slovenia and went on to place in the Top 20 at the world finals.
Lighting, video, and audio production for the live final, which took place at a newly-opened event centre located in the countryside to the south of Slovenia, was taken care of by Vertigo Productions.
At the back of the stage, under the video screen constructed from 24 of ADJ’s AV4IP LED panels, Tomy positioned four Vizi CMY300 hybrid moving head fixtures, while to the sides he utilized a pair of Vizi BS

Spain - The 17th edition of the Los 40 network’s Los 40 Awards Show showcased a wide range of talent representing a broad mix of musical styles and personalities. Taking place at the 17,00-capacity WiZink Centre in Madrid, the show celebrated the achievements of artists, ranging from Rosalia and Adele to Yungblud and Bad Gyal, to The Black Eyed Peas and Dani Martin.
The eclectic mix of artists appearing during the ceremonies satisfied fans’ taste for a variety, but the breadth and sheer number of performances on stage presented a challenge for lighting designer Alain Corthout and his team.
“This was a big production,” said Corthout. “We had over nine different types of spots and six types of washes, so we had to keep things simple to avoid becoming messy. We also had to be fast, due to the number of acts and the volume of last-minute changes.”
Helping Corthout meet these challenges were his two ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium consoles supplied by Fluge, the main rental company for the show. “Our ChamSys desks have been a great asset in this project,” he said. “The programming speed we can achieve with it was a game changer; we got so much music last minute, so we had to be very quick.
“The way we can timecode Cue Stacks in ChamSys is really fast,” continue Corthout. “We had our two MQ500M desks in a master-slave setup which works perfectly to keep things moving fast. To give you an idea of the our speed, there were short clips between the musical performances and the actual award presentations, and we were able to transit

Australia - Sydney Catholic Schools presented four special performances of School of Rock - The Musical in an arena spectacular based on the original Broadway show and staged at the 16,000-capacity Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.
Lighting designer Mark Hammer created the lighting design and found an ingenious Robe RoboSpot solution for his extensive follow spotting needs. Mark worked under the direction of Great Big Events, who produced the show on behalf of Sydney Catholic Schools.
The stage was designed with a 270-degree viewing angle, complete with a full choir at the back for some sections of the show, and a prominent ‘B’ stage in the middle of the arena floor for ‘rock out’ moments, so Mark needed multiple follow spots.
He thought it was a perfect time and scenario to specify four Robe RoboSpot systems to run 12 x BMFL FollowSpot moving lights.
The 12 x BMFL FollowSpots were paired with four RoboSpot BaseStations each running three fixtures, all supplied by Sydney based lighting vendors, Chameleon Touring Systems, and Mark was delighted with the results.
He often uses Robe products on his shows, but this was the first time he had spec’d the remote follow system, although he admits to being impressed with it since one of the early Australian demo sessions presented by distributor Jands back in 2018.
“Follow spotting was vital to this show and with a 19 / 20m trim height I needed really bright units – and lots of them – so this was a ‘must-have’ on the lighting plot,” he explained.
Us

UK - Bristol-based SLX was asked by DB Partnership to work alongside them to create a spectacular after-dark illuminated experience Spectacle of Light at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire. Excited by the opportunity to extend its presence within the experiential market, SLX called upon its skilled technical and creative team to work together with Nic Beeby, DB Partnership’s creative producer and designer to create a stunning outdoor design that transformed the castle gardens, ruins and woodland into a magical and immersive experience.
SLX combined its extensive knowledge of creating light shows with the latest technology to bring this ambitious creative vision to life. This included designing bespoke projections and displays, to developing audio streams that would synchronise with the light movements.
"As leaders in the industry, we're vigilant in our search for creating new innovative ways to tell stories. Working on the ground and seeing these spectacular visions come to life has been incredibly rewarding and is a testament to what the SLX team has always set out to achieve," says Alex Keighley, creative designer & project manager, SLX
Now in its eighth year, the Spectacle of Light has gone from strength to strength and welcomes over 50,000 attendees to the gardens each year. First intended to be a yearly recurring event throughout the festive period, its success has created new possibilities for SLX and DP Partnership to expand its collaborative work, with there now being seven hosting locations throughout the UK featuring Spectacle of Lig

Spain - Ukrainian manufacturer i3 Engineering will present its latest systems (#CS640) in the show’s Discovery Zone.
i3 Engineering is a specialist hardware company in the fields of smart home and building automation solutions manufacturing. The company develops and manufactures controllers which configure without programming from their own mobile app.
"Our devices can be combined to a multi-master bus, which allows any of them to know what is happening to others,” says CEO Pavlo Tsiupka. “A user or integrator creates an automation rule in a mobile app, which transmitted to the device. The device processes the rule and sends the command to execute. For example, if switch is turn on, then light two lamps, if double-press - raise the air temperature, if a long press - close the curtains. We want everyone electrician to be able to set up an automation system of any complexity using our devices.”
i3 Engineering systems can manage various types of electrical equipment, such as lighting, sockets, heating and air conditioning systems, blinds and curtains, irrigation, etc. The system can be installed in private houses, apartments, restaurants, ships, business centres, malls and hotels.
Having received the CE certificate in 2021, the company focused on growth in Ukraine and distribution in markets where the frequency range of 50Hz 230V and 60Hz 127V is used. The company has partners in Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Egypt and Portugal. Now they are looking for interested distributors companies in Spain, Italy, and the UK.

USA - Greg Klimetz and the team at Relevant AV Solutions gave themselves a clear mission statement when they began planning the Transformation Project at New Covenant Church’s worship centre in Valdosta, G, in the spring of 2021. “The key word in our planning was ‘yes,’” said Klimetz. “As in when the church asked us “can we do…” our answer had to be ‘yes we can!’”
It was a simple, direct, and succinct goal, but one that was not without its challenges, given the diverse mission of this dynamic church, which was founded in 1980. In addition to embracing Sunday services, the church hosts vibrant touring concerts, multiple conferences, and events for community members of all ages.
Built in 2004, the church’s worship centre served the purpose of its time, but the building wasn’t supple enough to meet the multi-faceted needs of today. Fixed pews and stained glass on three of the room’s walls, made doing anything beyond a Sunday Service, and hosting a wedding, nearly impossible. Moreover, the space wasn’t camera friendly, which was an issue, given that the church livestreams its services.
“We worked hand in hand with Scotty Williams and Chris Shelton from New Covenant to help visualise and realise their dream for the AVL systems,” said Klimetz. “Working from an overall design and concept, we remained open-minded throughout the entire process working to explore the best solutions.”
Following this collaborative process, the worship centre was renovated “from the ground up,” including the removal of so

Qatar - Lighting designer Matthew Tunchon and Qatar Vision Production Company WLL (QVISION) utilised a large Claypaky rig to light the first test event for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 inside the newly built Lusail Stadium in Doha, which hosted the tournament’s final match between France and Argentina.
The event marked the official unveiling of the World Cup uniform for staff and volunteers. Since the soccer pitch was being prepared for the final match, the ceremony’s attendance was limited to 25,000 people but the event had to feel big in size and scope.
“Executive producer Dan Bolton and creative producer Tom Davies both from Dubai-based BE Experiential, expressed the need to make this event fill out the stadium,” says Tunchon of Silver Bullet Projects in Sydney, Australia. “The production designed by Nathan Heverin needed to work around the pitch and be quite compact, so it was up to the lighting to really give the event a big arena look.”
To help achieve that, Tunchon assembled a rig featuring 50 Claypaky Scenius Unicos, 40 A.leda B-EYE K20s, 25 Sharpys and 30 Hepikos.
“We used the B-EYEs in the seating area behind the stage to provide some great effects and to backlight the performance stage,” Tunchon explains. “The big face of these fixtures as well as the huge amount of looks you can get out of them meant they were really great at helping to pull the stage out from its position in front of the seating area.”
Along with the B-EYEs the “real star fixture” at the event were the Hepikos beam-wash lights, he report

Italy - Gian Carlo Vannetti is an experienced lighting designer based in Novellara, who specialises in creating theatrical lighting designs using Obsidian Control Systems' Onyx platform. With nearly 30 years in the entertainment technology industry, he has had the opportunity to work on a wide range of projects, from big and small Italian artists to festivals, corporate events and more.
Gian Carlo's passion for lighting design began early in his career when he found himself attracted to the lighting console, despite starting out with more basic tasks such as prepping cables and loading trucks. “I really love all the features in lighting control software and all the lovely things you can create with cues and timing,” he states. “I try to follow the music and re-create somehow that feeling so people can also participate visually. That’s what makes me shiver and feel good! Trying to create something that makes sense in that moment.”
Over time, he gained experience operating a variety of consoles, including Coemar, Avolites, Martin Case, Whole Hog, GrandMA, Jands Vista, and ChamSys. This eventually led him to Obsidian Control Systems’ Onyx platform and he now owns several Onyx-driven products including an NX Wing, NX Touch, M-Play, NX DMX, and Netron EP4.
Currently, Gian Carlo works on the theatre side of the industry, collaborating with a dance company that has a creative approach to light. He explains, "There is a lot of 'dark' so a light at 5% has and makes a huge difference!" He began exploring Onyx in 2020, intrigued by its features and

Germany - ARRI has announced Dr. Raphael Kiesel as its new head of quality management. Based at the film technology company’s headquarters in Munich, he will ‘convert customer requirements into products and services in an even more structured manner’.
Dr. Matthias Erb, chairman of the executive board at ARRI, comments: “ARRI has stood for the highest quality in the film industry since 1917. These high-quality standards must be further advanced globally in all business and corporate areas. I wish Dr. Raphael Kiesel every success with this important task.”
Dr. Raphael Kiesel adds: “I am very much looking forward to this exciting position and am well aware of ARRI’s heritage and the responsibility that comes with it. Our goal is to further improve upon the quality of ARRI’s products and services and to offer customers the very best that is possible.”
Dr. Raphael Kiesel was most recently head of the Quality Intelligence department at the Machine Tool Laboratory (WZL) of RWTH Aachen University. During this time, he also completed an MBA at the Collège des Ingénieurs in cooperation with Siemens.

Germany - Since 1985, the Theaterhaus Stuttgart has brought together various artistic genres, experimental and popular productions, internationally renowned artists and newly developed projects under one roof. The Theaterhaus maintains its own theatre and dance ensemble and raises almost 65% of its annual costs itself. The Theaterhaus has around 300,000 visitors every year, with an average of 900 events ranging from theatre and dance to concerts, comedy and cabaret, readings, lectures and exhibitions.
Recently, the Gauthier Dance production performed by the Theaterhaus Stuttgart’s dance ensemble has attracted the most attention. For this, the in-house lighting team used Robert Juliat Dalis 860 8-colour mixing LED cyclights for the first time, as well as Dalis 862 tunable white LED footlights, all of which have recently become part of the Theaterhaus’ permanent lighting inventory.
The decision to go with the Dalis fixtures was made after an extensive shootout at the theatre with several manufacturers’ products. Wanja Wenzel, deputy technical manager at the Theaterhaus Stuttgart, was particularly impressed by the light quality and beam pattern of the asymmetrical 300W Dalis LED cyclights, which provide excellent illumination of the stage over its entire depth with very little spill. "For Gauthier Dance, the entire stage area is in play, for which we needed a horizontal luminaire that could illuminate a projection screen at a short distance in the best possible way."
The stage at Gauthier Dance is sparse and empty - only the dancers inhabit the

Finland - Tampere Hall hosted Lucid Dreams, a photographic exhibition of Mikki Kunttu’s work, Light & Shadow, an international lighting seminar that included contributions from LeRoy Bennett, Christopher Bauder, Benjamin Dupont, Ralph Jörg Wezorke and Ola Melzig, a performance by the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra of Gustav Holst’s The Planets suite lit by Kunttu, and A Night of Light international gala concert lit by one of Finland’s talented young lighting designers, Alex Hautamäki.
The germ of the idea came from Tampere Hall’s managing director, Paulina Ahokas, who has worked with Kunttu extensively. The result was a collaboration with many artists with whom Kunttu has worked throughout his career, with Kunttu himself lighting the seven-part masterpiece, The Planets, in cooperation with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra.
“The Planets is one of the best-known classical compositions of the last century, and for a visual designer it provides a fantastic canvas to paint on,” he says. “In practical terms it was straight-forward enough to design within the tight and busy timeframe of the weekend, yet gave me plenty of scope to create some exciting space-themed looks. It is already written in the music, a journey into space.”
Kunttu chose to design, programme and operate the lighting and video for The Planets to give it an artisanal, back-to-roots feel. Centred around a circular video screen above the orchestra, the design featured over 100 Ayrton fixtures, including 26 Ayrton Cobra

Denmark - The Boyband Tour is a vibrant two-hour steamroller of a set inspired by some of the biggest international ‘boyband’ hits from the nineties and noughties – Westlife, Backstreet Boys, SpiceBoys and more. It is delivered by five Danish musical stars – Silas Holst, Kim Ace Scherlund, Teit Samsø, Jeff Ace Scherlund and Joakim Traneberg – who are also the show’s producers.
Lighting, visuals, staging, and technical production is right at the heart of this project, which is the brainchild of Silas Holst, so Sune Verdier was delighted to be asked onboard to co-ordinate these aspects and also to production manager the first leg of The Boyband Tour which kicked off in Aarhus in December 2022 and continues around Denmark through February 2023.
Sune specified some of his favourite Robe moving lights for the show with Esprites, LEDBeam 150s, MegaPointes and Pointes plus other lighting and LED fixtures all supplied by Copenhagen based rental company, European Touring Productions (ETP) along with the audio and LED screen.
Integral to Sune’s show design is the video content that is crafted into the show which he commissioned from media specialist Faceoff Media House, which also produced coherent graphics, imagery, logos and promotional and marketing packages and content for the whole Boyband tour concept.
Video and lighting cues work in complete harmony with the slick choreography (directed by Kim Ace) to help produce the pulsing, foot-tapping, up-beat performance that fires up everyone in the room.
A relatively long gestation

Spain - Ayrton will present a selection of its product range on its integration-themed booth (7B550) at ISE in Barcelona from 31 January – 3 February 2023.
New products include the newly released Zonda 3, alongside its larger sibling, Zonda 9, and Ayrton’s first laser-sourced fixture, Cobra.
Part of Ayrton’s multi-sources 3 Series and smaller sibling to Zonda 9, Zonda 3 is a compact, versatile luminaire with unlimited potential designed specifically for stage lighting. Available as Zonda 3 Wash or Zonda 3 FX, this little powerhouse is packed with effects and can switch from beam to wash with great ease. Its speed of movement and reduced dimensions increase its dynamic potential.
Seven high-performance 40W LED sources (RGB+W) and a proprietary optical system enhance beam coherence, while its 50mm truncated transmitting lens delivers a high intensity beam with a zoom ratio of 14:1 and a wide zoom range of 4° to 56°. A light output of 5,200 lumens and a perfectly homogeneous mixture of pastel and saturated colours, regardless of the colour combination chosen, complete the package.
Designed to cover an entire live entertainment stage, Zonda 3 Wash’s additive colour synthesis can reproduce precise, intense and deep colours, while the careful colour mixing of the sources allows for perfect colour reproduction. A special black honeycomb and perfect separation of the light sources helps to significantly boost the level of contrast. A complete library of pre-programmed colours, created in collaboration with lighting designers, is instantly a

India - Light Craft & Sound, a leading lighting supplier for the film and TV industry, has recently purchased one hundred Prolights EclPanel TWC, 10 EclPanel TWCXL and 10 combined Astra Wash19Pix and 37Pix moving lights to their rental fleet.
Light Craft is a multidisciplinary creative studio based in Mumbai that works with leading channels in India like Start TV, Sony, Zee TV, Viacom, and many others, and leading Bollywood productions like Dharma Production, Yash Raj Films, and others.
Mr. Arjun Singh, managing director of Light Craft & Sound, explained his decision to invest in Prolights: “We were impressed with the colour calibration and its colour precision across the entire range of soft lights.” Singh added: “These are great key-selling points of Prolights' fixtures. Their colour and light output are similar to other leading manufacturers of soft lights.”
Mr. Arjun was also impressed with a few software features: “We liked the built-in effects in particular and the fact that you can tweak their parameters. The colour mixing system and the built-in colour gels are also incredibly useful to the Indian market.”
The fixtures were supplied by Lotus Cine, the company's newly appointed distributor in the region.

UK - London's largest ever New Year's Eve celebration took place at the London Eye on the River Thames, featuring a stunning fireworks and drone display accompanied by a mesmerizing light show designed by Tim Routledge. His first time lighting London’s end-of-the-year celebration, Routledge chose Elation’s powerful Proteus Excalibur beam moving head as a key fixture in his design.
“We wanted something that could cut through so you could see the beams and create more architecture with light,” Routledge said of his decision to use the Excaliburs. “It was very much about getting the chunkiest beam we could.”
The Proteus Excalibur’s enormous output - the beam light generates up to 7,500 lux at 100m - -in combination with a 260mm lens and 0.8° beam competes with xenon searchlights and sky trackers. “It’s hard to punch through the amount of smoke that the fireworks generate,” the designer says, “but we managed to get past that with high-output lighting that was very much visible throughout the show.”
Routledge took on the project nearly a year ago, first assisting show producers Identity with the tender process and then working with them throughout the year to create a show that included 12,000 fireworks, 400 drones and over 300 high-power lights supplied by Neg Earth Lights.
The designer, who had seen the IP-rated Proteus Excalibur at the Prolight+Sound show last May and demoed the unit in September, positioned the units inside each of the London Eye’s 32 pods. It was an arduous task that Routledge and his team met res

New Zealand - Aotearoa-based design studio Filament Eleven 11 combines the talents and imagination of lighting and visual artists Rachel Marlow and Brad Gledhill. Working across multiple genres – theatre, opera, dance, rock ‘n’ roll’ live events, installation, and light art – and embracing a mix of medias and light forms, the company is known for its innovative and fun approach to enhancing storytelling with this form of expression.
Filament Eleven 11 also owns some specialist lighting and control kit, and this year invested in Astera wireless LED products – AX3 LightDrops and NYX Bulbs – which have been busy on several projects.
Three AX3 LightDrop kits (24 in total) and 30 x NYX Bulbs were purchased from Astera’s New Zealand distributor, ULA Group, in the last year for use as “ultimately useful lighting tools” commented Rachel, and since then, she and Brad have both enjoyed using them creatively and inventively in multiple contexts on a variety of productions.
Both were already familiar with the Astera brand and its products, they had used them on a few shows including AX3s and AX1 Pixel Tubes as part of Rachel’s lighting scheme for A Stab in The Dark by Carl Bland, staged at the Q Theatre in Auckland, a production that was also livestreamed.
With puppets as well as live actors onstage and the puppets needing extremely careful lighting to retain all the magic, drama, and complexity of the puppeteering, the AX1s and AX3s were a winning solution that could be moved quickly and easily around the stage without any

Spain - Naostage’s K System beaconless 3D tracking solution will make its debut before an international audience at Integrated Systems Europe 2023.
The K System makes it easy for fixed-install professionals to create immersive, interactive live experiences by seamlessly identifying and following visitors and performers wherever they are in a defined tracking area – allowing for the automation of an endless array of lighting, audio, video and media effects in real time, in sync with the installation or show. The official launch of K System will take place at 16.30 on Tuesday 31 January on the 196sqm Naostage booth (5D700), where hands-on demonstrations will give ISE visitors the opportunity to see the product up close for the first time.
In addition to concerts, tours and festivals, the technology could be used, for example, to automate tracking in a venue, museum or visitor attraction, triggering audio, video and lighting effects as a visitor enters the room, or to allow a cruise ship to embark on a multi-week journey with a fully automated show, simplifying pre-production and reducing costs across the board.
Once rigged, the plug-and-play sensor scans the space in 3D, feeding data to the K System processing unit, which automatically identifies each target in real time.
Paul Cales, founder and CEO of Naostage, says ISE provides an opportunity to demonstrate the power of K System to an international audience, as well as build on its existing network of partners and distributors in the EMEA region. “Along with live staging, the AV systems

UK - Sonny Fodera performed two sold-out shows at O2 Academy Brixton recently. Throughout both shows, the walls of the venue reverberated with fans responding to the highly emotive songs from his recently released fifth album Wide Awake and other recordings.
Helping to connect the music to the big crowd to at the South London venue was a bold Tom Cull lighting design that featured 89 Chauvet Professional fixtures, supplied and installed by Bigabox Productions, which also furnished the video wall.
Seamlessly moving from intense aerial displays with aggressive crossing patterns, to moody atmospheric settings, to dark, shadowy haunting looks, Cull’s lightshow reflected the wide and nuanced emotional range of Fodera’s vocal-driven compositions.
The kit’s 10 Maverick MK1 Hybrid, 24 Rogue R3 Beam, and 16 Outcast 1 BeamWash fixtures, hung primarily on mid and downstage truss, created most of the dynamic aerial effects. Some of the beams, along with eight STRIKE 4 warm white blinders delivered intense audience lighting from their positions on four vertical stage-left and stage-right truss structures. (These structures flanked the two side video walls, to create a nice harmonious look on the stage.)
Also included in the kit was a collection of 23 Color STRIKE M motorized strobe wash fixtures, which were arranged on the deck as well as on diagonal truss risers that moved from the left and right edges of the stage to its centre. These high output units were used to create blinding blasts of light at times, whilst at other moments, they bathe

South Africa - DWR Distribution has been appointed the official South African distributor for zactrack automated ‘following system’ designed for open-air events, theatre stages and studios. The system was put through its paces by lighting designer Denis Hutchinson on Sinbad the Sailor, a festive pantomime held at the Teatro, Montecasino.
The system allows any number of performers to be tracked and registered in a 3D computer model using Ultra Wide Band (UWB) radio tracking to locate the position of actors and objects on stage.
Stephan Saremba, managing director at zactrack, comments, "We welcome DWR Distribution to the family of worldwide zactrack distributors. Their professional sales, support and training team, matched with an extensive product portfolio make them an ideal partner to bring the magic of automated tracking to customers in South Africa. We look forward to working together on a growing number for exciting automated tracking applications.”
DWR Distribution’s Duncan Riley adds, “With the industry on its feet after the pandemic and an audience thrilled to be back at shows again, we were finally ready to launch,” said Duncan. “The DWR team, including Jaques Pretorius and Motlotlo Makhobotloane (Mac) tested zactrack SMART in our demo room and were delighted at its functionality and ease of use. We then reached out to lighting designer, Denis Hutchinson, who incorporated the system in Sinbad the Sailor, the first pantomime to be hosted in the Teatro at Montecasino in Fourways, Johannesburg.”
Denis Hutchi

USA - A lot of lighting designers looked for ways to stay busy and productive during the pandemic lockdown. Daniel Thibault of Life is Art Studio in Raleigh, NC, found a number of means to do this; one was by lighting in-your-car-concerts at drive-in movie theatres, the other was by helping the Lincoln Theatre develop a “covid safe” seating plan that could be implemented when restrictions on live shows were finally eased.
“The theatre wanted to figure out how to reopen responsibly for live music shows when the time came,” said Thibault. “So during the pandemic, I spent time making an exact 3D model to scale of the stage and the building , so we could help figure out a safe seating chart.’
In the process, Thibault also figured out something else: how to get “the most lights possible” on the popular venue’s relatively small 24ft wide by 20ft deep stage, while still leaving room for a band.
This New Year’s Eve, the fruits of his labour were on full display, as the Lincoln Theatre in downtown Raleigh hosted a three night concert series by the six-piece alternative rock band Big Something. Fans safely seated in the historic theatre felt like they were seeing a show on a much bigger stage, as Thibault rocked the house with an intense, fast-moving show that featured, big sweeps of split beams, sharp geometric patterns and deeply textured gobos.
Helping him accomplish this was a beefy, but compact rig anchored by 12 Rogue R2 Wash, eight Rogue R2X Beam, and eight Rogue R2 Spot fixtures from Chauvet Professional.
“The fixture