Canada - To provide the Twisted Tea Grey Cup Halftime Show with a hybrid lighting and creative video display that translated both on television and in person, Electric Aura Projects collaborated with Christie Lites and Solotech to deploy a rig featuring a wide range of Martin lighting solutions.
Established in 1909 and named for former General Governor of Canada Albert Grey, the Grey Cup is the championship game that concludes each Canadian Football League season. With regular viewing audiences of four million, the Grey Cup is Canada’s largest annual televised sports event. The 109th Grey Cup final took place on 20 November, 2022 at Mosaic Stadium in the Saskatchewan city of Regina. The highly anticipated Twisted Tea Halftime Show featured performances by Tyler Hubbard, Jordan Davis and Josh Ross.
To ensure a successful halftime production, Patrick Roberge Productions (PRP) once again turned to Electric Aura Projects to supply a lighting design that simultaneously entertained the live audience in the stadium and millions of viewers at home. Electric Aura Projects’ Robert Sondergaard and Jason McKinnon designed a stage show using a plethora of Martin lighting fixtures supplied by Christie Lites and Solotech, including the MAC Aura PXL.
“The Grey Cup is one of the most watched TV programmes in Canada every year,” said Robert Sondergaard, production designer / co-owner, Electric Aura Projects. “We needed to put on a show for the television audience, but it also had to look good for the 40,000 fans in the stadium. On this show we had Martin f

Germany – Event production company, gruppe20, has invested in a Unitour power supply system from Australian manufacturer LSC Control Systems, in order to provide maximum control over its power management capabilities.
The Augsburg-based company, which purchased the systems through LSC’s exclusive distributor for Germany, LMP Lichttechnik, will be using them to power audio, video and lighting systems across the German market, in all types of production, including events, touring, film and television.
LSC’s Unitour is their premium portable power solution for the broad range of equipment - LED walls, audio, moving lights and AV hardware - used in entertainment production. The 24 or 48-channel modular system can be fitted with power switching modules for audio and video, or with dual-mode TruPower dim/switch modules for lighting. As well as the module flexibility, each channel can also be separately configured as a power supply, switch pack or dimmer. Not only can a broad range of equipment be powered, but both LED fixtures and conventional lighting can be dimmed from the same system.
gruppe20 first encountered the Unitour system on the stand of LMP Lichttechnik at the Prolight + Sound exhibition in Frankfurt last year. After a shootout, the company made the decision to invest in a 48-channel Unitour system with individual RCBOs per channel, a hot patch field and the flexible option to switch between power supply and dimmer.
Klaus Mayer, managing director of gruppe20, says, “The system will help us to be even more secure in dealing with o

UK – Lighting designer Ollie Wilkinson lit The Wizard of Oz at Blackpool’s Grand Theatre with a video wall backdrop.
“This was definitely a first for me,” he said of the experience. “I have lit many theatrical shows that feature projection, but never a wall of LED tiles. This presented a challenge in terms of how bright and vibrant the video wall was, but it turned out very well.”
Helping Wilkinson meet this challenge were the 18 Chauvet Professional Maverick MK2 Spot fixtures in his kit. Supplied by Arranpaul, the 440-watt moving fixtures were flown on upstage and mid-stage electrics. From these positions, the high output (up to 20,200 lux at 5m) luminaires provided the light Wilkinson needed to balance the LED video wall.
“I needed a workhorse fixture that would be up to the challenge of competing with 56 Panels of screen,” said Wilkinson. “I needn’t have looked any further than the MK2 Spot for that. Our video director Ashley Swain and I worked closely together to achieve and excellent balance between light and video. I should add that my director Nigel Machin was also a pleasure to work with, as were the people from AVR Dance and the theatre’s technical manager Dave Renwick and Arranpaul, which provided excellent technical support.”
Wilkinson also worked with the camera film team to ensure the show was white balanced and that it worked well on camera. He was careful to inform the camera team of what colour and temperatures they would be facing.
Working together, the design team achieved an equilibrium b

Mexico - The beauty, magic and history of Mexican Caribbean indigenous cultures blended with dance beats as the rhythm and free spirit of rave sent a rush of positive energy and human experience coursing through the 2023 Zamna Festival in Tulum.
The eye-catching jungle venue surrounded by nature reserves and sacred cenotes, provided an appropriate setting for this event, and into this dreamscape reality stepped lighting designer Eran Klein, working with artist Black Coffee on the Island Stage.
Eran was asked to light Black Coffee’s performance by Oren Heknin – a long term client and underground club promoter / presenter. Eran insisted on having Robe Spiiders, MegaPointes LEDBeam 150 and Tetra2 moving lights on his rig, which involved swapping out the originally proposed moving lights for his Robe luminaires.
“I could not contemplate producing such a special show without the right tools,” he commented.
The Island Stage – one of several performance spaces across the site – is surrounded by water and an integral part of this large outdoor club environment which energises each year through January, attracting major DJs and music producers from around the world.
Behind the DJ booth and stage was a permanent ground support structure which could be utilised for lighting positions, but Eran and the Black Coffee team built their own 8m high ‘heart’ centrepiece in front of this.
This comprised custom goalposts creating four arches in a slightly abstract heart shape – open to interpretation in numerous imaginative, interest

UK – London welcomed 2023 with its largest ever New Year’s Eve celebration, and its first after two years of Covid cancellations. To source the wireless DMX control system which would be essential for the event, lighting supplier Neg Earth Lights turned to A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET), the UK & Ireland distributor for Swedish innovator LumenRadio.
Produced by Identity, with creative direction from Dan Colbourne and David Zolkwer, the celebrations included an enormous fireworks display, along with a drone light show and a large-scale lighting spectacle created by lighting designer Tim Routledge. With the television cameras in mind, Routledge knew he needed powerful lighting fixtures inside each of the London Eye’s 32 pods to provide the visual ‘punch’ required, and chose Elation’s new Proteus Excalibur beam moving heads for the job. He also knew that the luminaires would have to be controlled wirelessly, as this would be the only way of sending control data to each pod.
Neg Earth Lights, with help from AC-ET’s Jack Moorhouse, began looking at LumenRadio’s latest wireless DMX control products back in September, with a series of demos set up by AC-ET at Neg Earth’s London headquarters. After encouraging results, followed by successful site tests, the team was confident that the LumenRadio systems would ensure the reliability required for such a high-profile event. The order was placed for three CRMX Stardust and 34 CRMX Aurora units, along with the required antennas. For the actual event, 12dbi outdoor directional antennas we

USA – Yale’s David Geffen School of Drama staged a performance of the American rock musical Next to Normal recently, with a lighting design by David DeCarolis using VL2600 Spot luminaires as part of the Vari-Lite University Outreach Programme from Signify.
DeCarolis employs a musical approach to his lighting designs, having studied music in the past. He structures his looks based on form, harmony and dynamics, even seeing a lighting console as something of an electronic drum kit. He collaborated with the team at David Geffen School of Drama and Vari-Lite to deliver the right luminaires for the production of Next to Normal, choosing the VL2600 Spots as he required a high-output fixture offering a broad range of rich colours and effects.
The Vari-Lite University Outreach Programme initiative is an ongoing project allowing talented students to use Vari-Lite luminaires in a real-world environment. The programme allows educational design programs to connect with Vari-Lite technology and staff to explore design solutions that are often only available to professionals.
“I needed a fixture that wasn’t too large, could perform pretty quietly, and enabled me to have fun with effects and a varied colour palette,” says DeCarolis. “The VL2600s fitted into that picture perfectly and could help me create the world I wanted for the production. In addition to being simple to rig with the universal clamps – the electricians said it was the quickest load in for moving lights – I really took advantage of the Iris, the CMY color mixing and

Mexico - Bad Bunny’s two-hour show on the recent World’s Hottest Tour delivered all of the power-packed passion that fans have come to expect from this Puerto Rico-born superstar. The Latin American leg of his sold-out tour included stops in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and the Dominican Republic.
In each of his shows, Bad Bunny was supported by a fast-moving lightshow that featured 96 Color STRIKE M and 40 STRIKE Array 2 fixtures from Chauvet Professional, supplied by different vendors in various countries.
The lighting designer for the tour, Travis Shirley reflected the transformative mood created by the beaches of Puerto Rico. Tour director, Roly Garbalosa, and the LD/programmer Krizia Velez helped bring this imaginative panorama to life at every venue.
“The looks were inspired through music and even many of the songs have sounds of the sea where you can see the waves, the birds and even the dolphins,” said Krizia, who began her own collaboration with Bad Bunny in 2017.
Discussing the makeup of the tour rig, Krizia noted: “One of the reasons why we chose the Chauvet Color STRIKE M is that it is the only strobe effect with all the elements we are looking for, including an IP65 rating. This was one of the main reasons why we did not hesitate to add them to our rider. All our shows were outdoors. For its part, the STRIKE Array 2 gives us an emulated “amber shift” that warms the colour temperature of the light as it dims to provide a classic tungsten look

USA - Working with Solotech US, UK-based production and lighting designer Will Smith designed the lighting, video and set for the North American, Australia and Asia legs of American singer-songwriter Conan Gray’s Superache Tour.
Smith chose Claypaky Scenius Spots and Mythos 2 fixtures for the sold-out North American leg of the tour, which is in support of Gray’s second studio album of the same name. Superache was released in June 2022, debuted at number nine on the US Billboard 200 and spent 12 weeks on the chart.
Smith, who also worked with Gray on his previous tour, designed Superache “to befit the new album with its very romantic and rose-based aesthetic”, which includes “a big entrance and incorporating a heart in the video design,” he explains.
“I was inspired by the great romantic music videos of the ’80s and early ’90s that Conan is a fan of,” says Smith. “We used a lot of white billowy drapes with a traveller system to create a flat projection wall and entrance while also giving a different tier to the performance space. When sketching this up I incorporated a lot of big looks with hard-edged spots to contrast with the softer looks.
“The focal point is obviously the heart-shaped videowall that was custom fabricated by ELS in Nashville. The videowall together with primarily hard-edged fixtures really gave us a very stylized and unique design that fans immediately associated with the dramatic Superache album.”
In choosing fixtures Smith was looking for “a powerful, hard-edged spot with goo

Europe - Prolights has released the Astra Profile600IP, a bright, IP65-rated LED moving profile. The unit is designed for large-scale touring and exterior installations.
The Astra Profile600IP offers’ an outstanding performance’ that utilises a 600W white LED engine, reaching 21,000 lumens whilst achieving a flat field beam projection. Its optical system moves linearly from 7° to 62°.
This fixture has a CMY colour mixing system that delivers saturated colours, linear CTO correction from 2,700K to 5,600K and a colour wheel with six colour filters plus a 5,600K high CRI filter.
The Astra Profile600IP includes four-layer motorised framing shutters, an animation wheel, a rotating gobo wheel, one frost filter, a four-facet prism and an iris.

Europe - Ayrton has announced the appointment of BT.innotec as its new, exclusive distributor for Germany with effect from 1 March 2023.
A new company, yet with 44 years of professional industry experience, BT.innotec was established in 2021 by Michael Timmer and Raphael Berndzen to focus on the distribution of carefully selected professional lighting, trussing and control technology for the entertainment lighting market.
The company will be responsible for the distribution and support of the entire range of Ayrton products.
“Ayrton is a well-recognised A-brand in our industry and we are honoured to be chosen as a partner in the worldwide Ayrton sales network,” says BT.innotec managing director, Michael Timmer. “It is a great opportunity and challenge at the same time, and we are convinced that, due to Ayrton’s technological leadership and stable product offering, there are exciting times ahead.
“Ayrton products are state-of-the-art in their development and engineering. The combination of light output and quality of light, along with the features each product offers, is top level. Especially important is the comprehensive IP65/66 offering which will become more and more relevant for our industry because they cut down service and maintenance time and costs in these times when we are experiencing a shortage of skilled workers.”
“Passion, knowledge and focus – combined with trustworthiness and continuity - these are the key ingredients that make an ideal distributor for Ayrton,” comments Michael Althaus, Ayrton’s global

USA - Some venues just lend themselves to creating evocative looks on stage, believes Glenn Ottenbachker. That’s one reason why the lighting designer from A.G. Entertainment USA was only too happy to take on the project of lighting a shared headline show at The Pabst Theatre recently.
Opened in 1895, the Renaissance Revival style theatre on the Milwaukee River exudes history. (It is the fourth oldest continuously operating theatre in the United States.) The 1,300-capacity venue also provides a supportive backdrop for a variety of looks with its drum-shaped interior complementing its proscenium stage and Austrian crystal chandelier hanging over its seating area.
Ottenbacher played on these aesthetics when lighting shows by tribute bands Barracuda and 52nd Street, using Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by AG Entertainment to create a series of different looks that tied the stage, the auditorium and the performers together.
Relying on his moving fixtures to create intersecting patterns of up and down lighting, he gave the stage a sense of depth that fit nicely with the architecture of the theatre, all while keeping his palettes simple, by either going with monochromes or limiting himself to two colour combinations.
Anchoring his rig were six Rogue R2X Wash fixtures, which were positioned on upstage and mid-stage pipes. “The Rogues were essential to accenting the bands,” noted Ottenbacher. “I positioned them in opposite positions to create different looks. I also used the upstage units for aerial effects.”
Directing light in

Curaçao – Singer Raynor ‘Raey’ Laufer recently performed a song entitled Kaminda tin Huma, Tin Kandela which translated from Papiamentu, the language of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao means Where There is Smoke There is Fire.
Many were warmed by the glow of the Curaçan artist’s own fire when he performed this number at the 51st annual Tumba Festival, a four-day event that drew over 40,000 fans from around the world and was broadcast on TV throughout the Caribbean and in Holland.
Even more people will be watching (and hearing) Raey song very soon. As the winner of the Tumba Festival’s competition, Kaminda tin Huma, Tin Kandela was named the official anthem of Curaçao’s internationally famous pre-Lent carnival.
Like all the other artists who entered songs in the Tumba Festival, Raey not only sounded great, he looked impressive too, thanks in part to a dynamic lighting design featuring over 130 Chauvet Professional fixtures that were supplied and installed by Massive Productions, which also set up the event’s audio system and LED screens.
Massive Productions’ Jimmy Lo-A-Njoe, came up with the concept and LD Ramon Ramirez who designed the lighting rig, used this power-packed rig to connect the large outdoor crowd to each performance on stage.
“Our goal was to create an experience for the client, the public, and the crowd at the event as well as those watching TV at home,” said Jimmy. “Coming up with interactive ways to enhance the show trough lightings video and sound was our focus. Working from my

UK - TSL Lighting in has expanded their product offerings by adding Elation Professional’s KL Fresnel 6 FC to inventory.
According to TSL managing director Sam Tamplin, the company had been searching for an LED Fresnel light to add to their inventory for several years but they had not found one that met their high standards until now. “They were either too bulky, or the output wasn’t bright enough,” he said. “The KL Fresnel 6 FC gives us a unit which is compact, punchy and with a high-quality full colour engine, bright enough to satisfy even the most demanding lighting designers.”
Designed for any application requiring high output soft light with precise color reproduction and adjustable color temperature, the KL Fresnel 6 FC excels at projecting a uniform wash of soft field light while matching the white balance for camera. It houses a 220W RGBMA LED engine with CRI of 92 and can produce up to 8,000 field lumens.
TSL arranged a demo of the KL Fresnel 6 FC through Entedi, Elation's exclusive UK distributor, and thereafter decided to add it to their stock. The investment adds to other Elation fixtures in TSL inventory, including over 700 outdoor-rated Paladin Cube LED floodlights. “We have been impressed with the build quality, reliability, output and price point of the Elation products we have in our inventory,” Tamplin remarked.
TSL commended Entedi for their excellent support and quick delivery, and also recognised Marcel Wijnberger, technical manager at Entedi, for his technical assistance across the Elation range. “Ente

Denmark - The lighting department of Danish rental and technical production specialist, European Touring Productions (ETP), based just outside Copenhagen, has started investing in Astera wireless LED lighting products.
The first purchase of 32 x Titan Tubes – four sets of eight – was recommend by project manager John Askwith, who came on board last summer and swiftly made a list of ‘must have’ products to service ETP clients, shows and events, especially in the corporate and television sectors. Titans were part of this list.
Previously, ETP had rented assorted Astera fixtures as and when needed. However, the increasingly frequent requests together with John joining the company energised the decision to start amassing their own stock of Astera fixtures.
“It was the way to go,” commented Emil Finsen who runs the lighting department with Sune Verdier. General manger Mikael Windfeldt also endorsed the purchase which was delivered by Astera’s Danish distributor, Light Partner,
Emil joined ETP as a student in 2010, and Sune, also a well-known lighting designer in his own right, joined the lighting team full time in 2019, and both are big fans of the brand.
Sune designs most of ETP’s in-house lighting projects plus his own independent design projects and will frequently specify Astera for this work. Recent projects include Astera Titan Tubes and AX3 LightDrops which he deployed as practical and imaginative tools as part of a striking lighting scheme for Danish musical, Elsk Mig i Nat (Love Me Tonight).
Emil a

The Netherlands - Toverland theme park in Sevenum faced the challenge of opening its doors outside the standard theme park season for its immersive Winter Feelings experience and successfully turned to Antari snow machines supplied by Highlite International BV to add to the wintery ambiance.
From 26 November to 15 January, the Dutch theme park offered visitors a magical winter wonderland. For their immersive Winter Feelings concept, they aimed to transform the entire – normally tropical-themed – Port Laguna entrance area into a winter-themed world. To meet this challenge, they invested in 14 Antari S-500 L Snow Machines, acquired from Highlite. The Antari S-500 L is a professional, silent snow machine that delivers snow showers to medium and large venues and was therefore perfectly suited to the occasion.
The main activities centred around a large ice-skating rink, providing traditional winter fun for all the family. Set up around a 10m-tall Christmas tree, young and old could be seen enjoying a turn on the ice. The 14 snow machines were scattered throughout the Winter Laguna area and provided much of the winter weather experience with their artificial snow showers.
Toverland added a new element to the Winter Laguna - a curling rink where groups of up to eight people could enjoy a friendly game of curling. There was also a 5m high tubing hill for children and adults to slide down. Food & beverage stalls decorated in appropriate winter style in the area completed the picture.

Hungary - The worst band in Hungary! The popular quintet, Republic, has, on occasion, introduce themselves as such, tongue planted firmly in cheek. Anyone familiar with this group knows that this sort of self-deprecating humour, is in keeping with the freewheeling, let’s-not-take-things-(or ourselves)-too seriously attitude that has marked their career.
After 32 years and 30 top-selling albums, Republic remains as bold, adventurous, and irreverent as a newly formed garage band. As their lighting designer, András Praksch, knows the importance of keeping intense, contemporary looks front-and-centre in his shows supporting the band’s blend of traditional Hungarian folk music infused with new electro-rock sounds.
“Republic is legendary, and they’ve been around for over three decades, but they are definitely not ’old school,” he said. “Their sound is always evolving, and so are the looks we create for them. We use LED walls with a lot of break out patterns and pyro for their shows, except when indoors. Instead of going with traditional cues, we try to create a WOW feeling that connects to younger fans.”
The forward-looking attitude was very much in evidence recently when Praksch lit Boros:60, a nationally televised concert at the Budapest Congress Centre to celebrate the 60th birthday of the band’s Csaba Boros. Helping him give the show, which featured the band backed by a 20-piece orchestra, dynamic looks was a collection of 58 Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by G-Sound Limited.
Praksch positioned his 18 Maverick MK2 Wash

USA - The sold-out co-headlining Trey Anastasio Band (TAB) and Goose winter 2022 tour played multiple arenas along the north-east coast and was a massive hit with fans, who, not only enjoyed some superlative music, but also witnessed a collaboration between the two artists’ respective lighting designers.
Marc Janowitz (TAB) and Andrew Goedde (Goose) plus their lighting directors / programmers and operators on the road, Patrick Hayes for TAB, and Tony Caporale for Goose, engaged in teamwork and creative synergy to make this happen while utilising Robe moving lights.
The mix of Robe Fortes, Tarrantulas, Spiiders, Spikies and Tetra2 fixtures was supplied by Gateway Studios & Production Services (GSPS), together with all the tour’s lighting equipment.
There was no playback video onstage, but all the shows were streamed, so both band sets were lit for a full live broadcast camera package, as well as for the live audiences.
For expedience and efficiency, some lighting elements were shared but there were also individual aspects to each rig to meet all the various creative requirements. With Goose playing first, their complete floor package and risers had to be struck after their set each night. TAB’s set up and the relevant overhead lighting bars were flown out and in during an impressive lightning-quick 20-minute changeover.
This feat of creative co-operation, production value, and logistical planning was masterminded, coordinated, and supervised on the road by production manager Jesse Sandler.
The 90-minute Goose set, and

UAE - Over 400 of Elation Professional’s all-weather Proteus lights were used by lighting designer Bruno Poet on the UAE's 51st National Day celebration, a showcase of the nation’s past, present and future that took place at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre in December.
A 108m cylindrical performance stage, lined with LED strips to form a tunnel and featuring portals at each end symbolizing the past and future, served as a dynamic platform for a parade of floats and massive cast of over 3,000 performers. A backstage staging area stretched nearly 2km before parading through the space and out the other end.
Es Devlin returned as co-creative director for the show, working with show producers People Creative. The organising committee of the 51st National Day Celebration was headed by creative executive producer Rawdha Al Qubasi and artistic director Ayesha Hadhir.
As the venue was an open-air environment, lighting fixtures required an IP rating and had to utilise LED technology to align with the show's commitment to sustainability. The lighting was predominantly powered by Elation, including 160 Proteus Lucius and 260 Proteus Maximus LED moving heads, 27 Proteus Rayzor 760 lights, 28 Proteus Rayzor Blade L battens, as well as 24 Elation KL Panels and other lighting elements. Encore supplied the complete lighting setup, including lighting fixtures, network, control, processing, trackers, wireless DMX, and work light.
“I needed outdoor rated fixtures because although the weather is generally good in Abu Dhabi, you just never know,”

UK - Lightware Visual Engineering has announced the opening of its new Experience Centre in the heart of London. This new facility will serve as a central hub for partners and customers across the UK and provide sales, customer, and technical support for all of Lightware's products.
Located in Lime Street, City of London, the Experience Centre is not only the new office of the Lightware UK team, but it also features a training room equipped with the company's latest signal management devices. Visitors will have the opportunity to get to know the Lightware team better and experience the company's products in live environments.
The centre showcases the full range of Lightware's solutions, Vinx, MX2M, TPX and LARA including award-winning technologies, Taurus UCX and UBEX. It provides customers with access to Lightware's products for testing, road map sessions and discussions on future technologies, enabling Lightware to better fulfil its customers' future needs.
Opening this new location is also a major strategic step in expanding Lightware's global footprint and fostering growth in Western Europe. It supports the company's strategic growth plan and provides a platform for customers to see the benefits of Lightware's products without the need for them to set up their own proof of concepts.
"As one of the world’s great cities, and with many of our global customers located within a short distance, London is the perfect location for our new Experience Centre," said Craig Storey, Lightware’s UK CEO. "We look forward to welcoming visitors to the c

UK - CP Wave is the newly formed UK & Ireland official partner for Claypaky, with on the ground sales, service, and support as standard. The aim is to structure a dedicated Claypaky team, by having skilled local personnel.
Claypaky reports that with effect from 1 February 2023, A.C. Entertainment Technologies is no longer the distributor of Claypaky products for the UK and Ireland.
Alessandro Colangelo, Claypaky business development manager and sales manager for the UK & Ireland states: “Our focus is to meet the high expectations of our customers in such a respected and important market. Claypaky will proactively support CP Wave team, thanks also to our renewed structure and corporate strategy. We have foreseen a challenging business plan in the mid-term as we strongly believe in CP Wave project, but most of all in CP Wave people, whom I’m confident will deliver the very best service to our customers.
“Being an invested extension of Claypaky, we believe CP Wave embodies all the necessary values to properly follow up the heritage of our brand without forgetting the current needs of the market. It is therefore vital to endorse the relaunch of Claypaky in UK & Ireland to this new go to market that will proactively propose our broader and innovative product portfolio, having the maximum care about our customers.”
Colangelo continues: “CP Wave can count already on an outstanding team of skilled professionals in all areas of sales, product & innovation, service. The team is only in a start-up phase with ambition to grow rap

UK - Recently, White Light was approached by BATS (Brantham Amateur Theatrical Society) who wanted to invest in a series lighting fixtures; both for their upcoming production of Guys and Dolls as well as all future productions.
The history of BATS dates back to 1972 when a drama subcommittee of the Community Council known as the Brantham Community Council Drama Group staged their first production. Ever since, it has regularly put on shows; all of them taking place at the Brantham Village Community Hall. The first show to be staged this year was Guys and Dolls, on which John Hoskyns was the musical director.
He comments: “Alongside my role as MD, whenever I’m working on a show, I always find myself becoming involved with the technical elements. Initially, this was just sound (alongside being a local GP, I also used to run a sound hire and sales company). Over the years, this saw me invest in a much-needed sound system for the venue. Over the past couple of years though, I’ve also realised that the lighting required updating; given that the fixtures were all tungsten and the desk at least twenty years old”.
Following his recent retirement as GP, John then decided to take the step and upgrade the lighting set-up. He comments: “I was fortunate enough to receive quite a good pension pay out, so thought I could spend some of it on updating the lighting. It was around this time we were also about to start rehearsals for Guys and Dolls.
John started to reach out to various companies and visited the PLASA Show at Olymp

USA - Special Event Services (SES) has significantly expanded its Ayrton lighting inventory with additional purchases of Domino LT, Bora S, and Khamsin fixtures and further committed to the product line with large first-time investments in Perseo Beam, Diablo, and Zonda 9 FX lights. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton products in North America.
Headquartered in Mocksville, North Carolina, SES offers audio, lighting, design, video, staging, and live event production to a wide array of clients. The company has closely watched the growth of LED technology and set a goal of getting its lighting inventory as close to 100 percent LED as possible. While SES offers LED fixtures from several different manufacturers it has kept an eye on Ayrton and its new LED offerings.
“Ayrton became very attractive to us because, within one company, small to large size LED fixtures were available with features that fit several needs,” says lighting designer Jeff Cranfill, one of the founding partners and vice president of SES. “We realised that our earlier model of purchasing fixtures involved buying from many different manufacturers based on requests we received from various lighting designs. Now we can find what we need for most designs from the complete Ayrton product line.”
“During the COVID shutdown, Michael Brammer and I had time to closely analyse our inventory of LED and arc fixtures from various companies. We concluded that most of them could be substituted with a fixture from the Ayrton line. So, we decided to set a goal of making t

USA - For the 2023 broadcast of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, lighting designer Lee Rose with supplier PRG selected and deployed a comprehensive range of Martin lighting solutions.
A network television staple since 1972, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve annually rings in the New Year with a varied roster of performers and guests alongside coverage of the festivities in New York, Los Angeles, and other cities throughout the globe.
The Los Angeles portions of this year’s special were filmed at two locations in Disneyland - Flo’s Diner in California Adventure and the Sleeping Beauty Castle -alongside the usual studio location, this year from Radford Studio Centre. Each location also featured performances by a wide variety of artists including singer Ciara, Halle Bailey of pop duo Chloe x Halle and K-Pop group Tomorrow X Together among others.
Given the multiple filming sites and eclectic artists, Lee Rose knew he needed lighting solutions that not only translated to audiences both in-person and at home, but also accommodated the strict requirements and turnaround times for filming within Disneyland. To meet these requirements, Rose worked with PRG to implement classic Martin fixtures, such as the RUSH PAR 2 Zoom, alongside modern solutions like the new Martin MAC Aura XIP.
“You are really limited in programming time when shooting at Disneyland,” said Rose. “From the park closing time, and the point where guests are cleared, to opening the next morning is around six hours. The other hurdle this year

UK - For the 25th annual MOBO (Music of Black Origin) Awards at Wembley, SJ Grevett had to incorporate a distinctive M-shaped trussing into his design. This trussing was configured in two levels, a softer, less pronounced M in the upper section that ran horizontally, and a sharper, more dramatic, and vertically oriented rendition of the letter below it.
Working with this M-and-M configuration, SJ turned the MOBO stage into a vibrant canvas that lent itself to limitless design possibilities for the award ceremony. “Having the M on the top horizontal was very good, and easy to work with,” he said “However, the lower truss rigging was interesting due to its M shape.”
These challenges were complicated further by a tight production schedule. SJ and his team had only three weeks to pull the design together, yet still managed to keep the M-shaped trussing over and on the stage. They also had only a one-day load in and had to accommodate late changes made the guest design teams for the artists, a stellar group of rap and hip-hop performers that featured Nile Rodgers and David, Kojey Radical, and Tion Wagne.
The design had to come together at the last minute, with only a few weeks’ notice. Due to the busy touring schedule of the artists who performed at the event, production teams were working up to the last second to produce content. Some artists only witnessed the final creation during their dress rehearsals, a huge amount of pre-production was the key to make sure that their creative visions to life quickly and effortlessly on the day of the sho