USA - Fans who pack the Pageant Theatre to capacity for six or seven El Monstero shows every holiday season never quite know what to expect. Certainly, they’re re going to hear spot-on renditions of The Wall, Dark Side of the Moon and other Pink Floyd classics, but beyond its music, this Christmas tradition in America’s heartland is full of delightful visual surprises.
Drawing on a cast of up to 75 characters, the annual tribute show in St. Louis has been coming up with novel and enthralling dramatizations and set designs every year since it was started by members of different local bands in 1999. True to form, the 2017 rendition of El Monstero sparkled with a lively and fresh-looking stage presentation, thanks in no small part to a convention-defying lightshow designed by Chip Self that featured a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures, including the new Maverick Pyxis.
“This is my third year of designing for El Monstero, and with each show I take pride in doing something new and different that exceeds the aesthetics of what we did previously,” said Self, the owner of Logic Systems Sound and Lighting. “I’m grateful to Kevin Gagnepain and the El Monstero team for having faith in my judgment and giving me enough design control to be able to try new ideas and equipment. To an extent, this show is R&D for us. I'm constantly trying to push the envelope and do something new.”
Among the things that helped Self push the envelope this year was the addition of the Maverick MK Pyxis. Introduced earlier this
USA - Andrew Peterson’s 18th annual Behold The Lamb Of God Tour returned to Nashville for two shows featuring a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites.
The moving show presents the Christmas story with musical numbers that move from the Old Testament to the New. Lighting designer Winn Elliott is nearly a dozen years into designing this production and credits his history with Andrew Peterson into knowing what direction to take the lighting each year.
“Andrew and I have worked together for so long that I have a good understanding of what he will and won’t like,” said Elliott. “We’re in many ways cut from the same cloth from a design standpoint: my goal is to add a very intentional visual interest and beauty to the evening and to complement all that is happening on stage. That typically involves building looks that don’t have a ton of movement or other elements that may be distracting to the audience.”
In addition to the live show at the Ryman, this year’s production featured a live stream at Lipscomb University’s Shamblin Theatre, requiring Elliott to create a lighting package that would suit both the live audience and those watching at home.
“This year, building a package that had to serve dual purposes was an added element, but Bandit was super helpful on that front, and it all came together beautifully,” said Elliott. “Brent Barrett, project manager Jimmy Hatten, and I got the rig from napkin sketch (seriously!) to CAD, to actual equipment hanging in the programming suite in a matter of days (hours, really
USA - Scorpions have wrapped the first North American leg of the Crazy World Tour 2017 with Megadeath. A large complement of Claypaky fixtures hit the road with the German rockers
The North American leg’s September and October dates included a performance at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, the first time the band played the venue since 1984.
Lighting and show director Manfred Nikitser, of Manfred Nikitser Show Lighting, designed a “classic rock show” with “big, strong looks” to please audiences who expected “a good rock show”. He created a “clean overall look with big LED screens, thrust and ego risers plus a massive angled stage set. My intention was to meld lighting and video, so LED screens were a lighting element that actually immersed the stage with saturated colour” for some songs. Live camera integration was a big part too, but clean camera feeds were always manipulated in some way to give a cohesive look to the on-stage VFX.
Nkitser was also challenged to create a show that could be easily adapted to different continents and countries with varying venue sizes and technical standards. “The show design has to use elements we can get in every country,” he says. The band carries the stage set, angled LED screens and drum riser while rigging, motors, truss and lighting are obtained locally.
Nikitser selected Claypaky Scenius Spots, A.leda B-EYE K20s and Sharpy Washes for the tour.
He specified 58 Scenius Spots as his main effects lighting fixtures. “I was very excited coming to the rehearsals
Australia - Sir Paul McCartney brought his long-running One On One tour to Australia this December - his first Australian tour since 1993’s The New World tour.
The show featured nearly three hours’ worth of the greatest moments from the last 50 years of music. FOH engineer Paul ‘Pab’ Boothroyd has been with Sir Paul for a fair portion of this journey.
“I first started working for him in 1989,” said Pab. “As well as being on stage for three hours, he also does a one-hour sound check every day. With line checks and system checks as well, I’m probably behind the console twiddling knobs for five hours so it’s quite an extensive day technically.”
That FOH console was an Avid Venue S6L which Pab has used ever since it was released and he describes it as one of the best consoles on the market. Pab’s S6L carries dialled-in snapshots for more than 100 songs.
“It’s very powerful and has massive capability,” remarked Pab. “My vocal chain for Paul is fairly straightforward; I’m using a Sonnox Oxford EQ and Avid Pro compressor. For effects there are some general reverbs (short, medium and large), a little bit of delay ADT and that’s it. There’s no playback or inputs from anywhere else, it’s all live.”
Plug-ins that are used sparingly include Smack!, ReVibe II, ReVibe I on drums and Mod Delay III.
JPJ Audio supplied the crew and gear for the tour including their Clair Brothers’ Cohesion Series for PA. At the Sydney show indoors at Qudos Bank Arena, Pab had 16 CO12 L+R, 14 CO12 LL+RR, 12 CO1
UAE - At the end of August an exciting event took place at Al Habtoor City in the heart of Dubai. La Perle, the spectacular new acrobatic water show from Franco Dragone, opened its doors for the first time, with four Robert Juliat Cyrano 2500W HMI chosen as La Perle’s followspots (read more about the production in LSi December 2017).
La Perle is a landmark for Dubai with a trio of firsts - Dragone’s first show in the Emirates, Dubai’s first large scale theatre dedicated to just one show and the only live residency ever to be performed in Dubai. Sixty five international artists are showcased against a dreamscape world in which they display their acrobatic, aquatic and aerial acting skills in a series of awe-inspiring stunts. 25m high dives and death defying stunts strive for attention with dancers and aerialists as the action centres in, around and above a 5.5m wide x 8m deep diving pool known as The Pit which overspills or recedes to fill and drain the wider stage at a moment’s notice.
The bespoke theatre is designed to gather its large audience around the irregularly-shaped performance arena and wet stage in just 14 rows of seats, giving perfect sightlines from every seat and guaranteeing each audience member a unique, close-up experience.
A complex, structured set and heavily reliance on projection combine to create the ambience of a grotto or cave. Directing the audience’s gaze
USA - Wall High School in Wall Township in Monmouth County, NJ, was planning to replace its sound system as part of the overall facilities refurbishment.
JD Sound & Video had provided the sound for a number of schools locally and this led Tom Ridoux, the school’s athletics director, to call them in for discussion. The brief was for a system that would provide high intelligibility coverage for the home bleachers, field, visitors and concessions areas. Additionally, the system was required to provide entertainment quality music.
JD Sound & Video designed a system based around Community’s R Series loudspeakers and, following its presentation to the school, was awarded the project. “With considerable experience in R Series’ superb sound quality, coverage patterns and all-weather reliability, it was our first choice of loudspeaker system for Wall High School,” explained Joe DiSabatino, president and lead design engineer of JD Sound & Video. “With a range of models providing ideal coverage for each area, the system was complemented with two powerful subwoofers to provide the low frequency impact for entertainment quality music.”
For coverage of the bleachers, JD Sound & Video mounted two R.35-3896 and two R.5-96MAX loudspeakers on the press box roof. A high output three-way dual 12-inch R2-52Z is also located on the roof to cover the field and visitor stands. Two R.5-96MAX loudspeakers are mounted on poles for the outside ends of the bleachers. An R.5-66MAX loudspeaker is also used for the concessions area.
The two IS6
UK - The newly opened Darlington Hippodrome, formerly known as Darlington Civic Theatre, has been restored to its former glory and transformed with 21st century technical facilities that include new stage lighting, audio and video systems.
Featuring leading brands including Chroma-Q, Allen & Heath, Panasonic and many more, most loose equipment was supplied by A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET).
The theatre received a £5m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) towards the ambitious £13.7m project to regenerate and upgrade the venue, which also included restoring the exterior of the distinctive Grade II listed building and the beautiful Edwardian auditorium inside. In addition, seating capacity has been increased to enable larger shows to be accommodated as part of an expanded artistic programme.
Darlington Hippodrome is also managing the newly-built Theatre Hullabaloo, a separate £2.9m project to create an adjacent flagship children's theatre venue. This was made possible in part by the venue receiving a £1.5m grant from the Arts Council England (ACE) in partnership with Darlington Borough Council, who committed £800,000.
When Darlington Hippodrome's technical manager, Steve Sanderson needed to equip both venues' facilities, having previously purchased from AC-ET, he approached them to tender for the supply of various entertainment technologies.
Sales executive Ben Steppenbeck of AC-ET's specialist lighting division recommended some options that would best meet the venues' technical requirements. In addition, the compa
USA - Winners in the New Group category at the 2016 Academy of Country Music Awards Old Dominion have been touring its Happy Endings album, and supporting the likes of Kenny Chesney and Thomas Rhett. The band has also been confirmed for Chesney’s Trip Around the Sun stadium tour in 2018.
Earlier this year, FOH engineer Ian Zorbaugh and monitor engineer Dean Studebaker decided to take SSL L300 Plus consoles, supplied by premier event production company Morris Lighting & Sound, on the road with Old Dominion.
Zorbaugh chose the SSL L300 because of the positive feedback he was hearing from other engineers - particularly Chris Rabold, who used L500 on the Kenny Chesney tour, which Old Dominion have been supporting. "The main thing I heard about the SSLs was that they sound absolutely phenomenal - that you need minimal EQ, less processing, and so on. I wanted to experience that, and to get to know the console."
Zorbaugh manages about 60 inputs from stage, with half of those coming from Whit Sellers' sizable drum kit, including two snares, four toms, and a wide range of cymbals. With that number of drums squeezed into the kit, and generating a lot of volume, control is an important part of the on-stage craft. As well as the standard kit microphones, there are also a number of drum triggers set up to feed the gate side chains on the individual kit channels. "All the cymbals are so close - some are actually closer to some of the tom mics than the toms are," explains Zorbaugh. "So having the triggers means that the correct gate opens when
Serbia - Perched along the banks of the Danube river some 60 miles from the hustle and bustle of capital Belgrade, the city of Novi Sad has been traditionally renowned for its relaxed and welcoming character. In recent years, however, the local character of Novi Sad has expanded by a collection of locally hosted, yet internationally renowned music festivals, including the infamous Exit and the Novi Sad jazz festival.
Another event putting Novi Sad on the musical map is the Green Love festival, an electronic Mecca attracting thousands of clubbing enthusiasts from Serbia and neighbouring countries such as Hungary, Croatia and Romania. For the most recent Green Love event, which saw DJs such as Metodi Hristov, Lea Dobričić and NUSHA take to the stage, AVL Projekt supplied Chameleon Rental with 16 Chauvet Professional Maverick MK1 Spot and 16 Maverick MK2 Wash luminaires for a spectacular installation.
To meet the demands of the large warehouse space, within which the 3,500 electronic music devotees were gathered, Chameleon positioned the Maverick fixtures high above the stage to shower the audience and stage alike with a potent mixture of spot and wash lighting effects.
“We were searching for a dedicated spot lighting fixture for Green Love for quite some time, but we didn’t find anything that fit the bill,” commented Chameleon’s Ivan Kršev. “But when we tried the MK1 Spot, we realised the fixture could fulfill all the requirements for a modern electronic festival: impressive light output, LED power, CMY optics
UK - Allen & Heath has partnered with Cato Music to outfit Cato’s South West London rehearsal studios and production facilities with an extensive array of Allen & Heath products, from QU series consoles to the flagship dLive mixing system.
Cato Music, a Production Park company, offers an all-encompassing tour production service, from rehearsal studios (including full production), transport and crewing to equipment rental and tour supplies. Its initial involvement with Allen & Heath’s dLive series came at SXSW 2017, as general manager Ant Forbes explains: “We first became aware of dLive in the run-up to SXSW, where Cato Music runs the production and stage operation at the British Music Embassy, at downtown venue Latitude 30. We used two S7000 surfaces and one C1500 surface in the venue this year – with 75+ artists playing the stage over the course of the week there were a great many different engineers using the console for the first time and all left highly impressed.”
She adds: “Since SXSW, we’ve added Allen & Heath GLD and Qu series consoles, as well as dLive C and S Class surfaces and MixRacks to our rehearsal facilities” he continues, “and become something of a home-from-home for Allen & Heath gear. We have a huge amount of seasoned and up-and-coming engineers through the Cato Music studios each year, so we’re well-placed to offer a meaningful hands-on experience to newcomers to dLive, and to cater to the increasing number of engineers who are requesting the systems.”
Christian Luecke, Allen & Heath
USA - Lighting designer Matt Guminski lit a reworked version of Ghost The Musical recently at the White Plains Performing Arts Centre in White Plains, New York, using a rig that included Elation Professional Satura Profile and Platinum Seven LED moving heads.
Guminski worked with master electrician and assistant LD Lizzie Mahoney on the adapted version of the play at the 410-seat professional theatre outside of New York City.
“We used the Satura Profiles several ways to help create the mood, as template washes, specials and aerial effects,” Guminski stated. “The framing was especially useful as it allowed for ultimate control. It was a box set with multiple projection surfaces so it was important that the projection on the scrim not be washed out.”
The LED-based Satura Profile with CMY colour mixing, four-blade rotating framing shutter system, gobos, prism and other design features is a fixture that Guminski is well familiar with, having used them in shows like Heathers, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and High Society. For Ghost the Musical the LD used six Satura Profiles in total, two on the near box booms at FOH, three on the first electric and one upstage on a very high trimmed fifth electric.
Guminski explains that sometimes the type of lighting used was motivated by the projection looks while at other times, when using a very saturated look for example, the projection would follow the lighting’s lead. “The Saturas punched through to create some really special moments even with layered templates or
USA - Two lighting designers built a shared rig for two bands performing at Portland’s House of Music, with a Chauvet Professional anchored floor package.
Matthew Calabrese is the LD for up-and-coming jam band Strange Machines. Touring in support of their Voice of Colour LP this summer, the band announced that it would be appearing at the popular downtown Portland music hall. Opening for them was Revibe, a funk fusion band. When Kyle Rose, the Revibe LD, saw that his client would be opening for Strange Machines, he immediately reached out to Calabrese.
“I had worked with Matt several times in the past when Strange Machines and another one of his clients, Kung Fu, played at Higher Ground in Burlington (Vermont), where I am the house LD,” said Rose. “I always liked his approach to lighting – the way he supported his clients without distracting from the music. So, I thought it would be cool to work with him at Portland.”
Calabrese agreed, and the two designers created a floor package using Rogue R1 Spot moving fixtures from the house rig at Rose’s Higher Ground club and COLORdash Batten- Quad 12 linear washes from Calabrese’s own stock. “We exchanged a lot of ideas about what we wanted the lighting to do in this particular setting, and we created the rig accordingly,” said Rose. “Since the music of both bands is very free flowing, we wanted fixtures that could create some big movements and changes, not just with colour, but with gobo patterns.”
The emphasis on gobos led Rose to include eight Rogue R1 Spot fixture
USA - Christmas came early for worshippers at Faith Family Church. Although they attended services on Christmas Eve, more than 8,200 of them began celebrating the holiday nine days earlier on Friday, 15 December, during the annual Christmas At Faith Family.
Christmas At Faith Family is an uplifting contemporary celebration of the season. Contributing to the transformative impact of the programme every year are the colourful and engaging lightshows designed by Aaron Cole of Goliath Lighting + Stage. This December, Cole gave his show an expanded look by adding 24 Chauvet DJ COREpar 40 USB fixtures to a rig that already included 40 moving wash and spot lights.
“We had COREpar 40s on either side of the centre stage video wall,” said Cole. “This rather large side space had really been underutilised in previous years, so the new fixtures made a big difference. They added sparkle to stage left and stage right to create a more complete panorama for the audience. Their compact size made them easy to work with, and I liked being able to daisy chain data and power.”
Cole positioned the 24 COREpar 40 USB fixtures on two 30’ ladders. The fixtures were arranged in four rows of three on each ladder. Controlling the RGB units via wired DMX, he frequently changed the colours they produced to reflect the program’s wide variety of music, which included everything from xylophone, rock and jazz quartet versions of Christmas music to traditional songs.
The intense output of the COREpar 40 USB fixtures allowed them to stand up to the brig
USA - Christmas is a time for homecomings, and so it was this year for singer Billy Gilman. Back in 2000, Gilman made history when, at age 11, he became the youngest person ever to have a Billboard Top 40 Country hit with his Grammy-nominated double platinum single One Voice, which reached No. 2 on the charts. His life and music have gone through their share of twists and turns since then, but the Westerly, RI-born singer has always returned to his native state to connect to his original friends and fans.
Gilman’s most recent homecoming took place on 14 December, when he performed a sentimental holiday show at Providence’s 14,000-seat Dunkin’ Donuts Centre. A Cody James-designed lightshow transformed the stage into a winter wonderland with a combination of big gobo looks and richly saturated colours created with Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by JDI Productions.
At the heart of James’ rig were 12 Maverick MK1 Hybrid fixtures positioned evenly on a upstage truss that spanned the width of the stage. The 440-watt spot/beam fixtures were used to project a variety of differently-shaped snowflake gobo patterns across the stage’s backdrop. Appearing at different heights, the crisp white gobos created an image of falling snow. Enhancing this image was the slow prism spin of colours between the gobos that James created with his Maverick units and 12 Legend 230SR Beam fixtures.
“I used the Maverick MK1’s CMY capability to create a softer version of a colour to lay over the colours produced by the Legends,” said James. “At ot
Europe - From mid-October to early December, Finnish rock band Sunrise Avenue toured across Europe on their Heartbreak Century tour, a run of smaller venues before the five-member band hit the road on a bigger arena tour this year.
Light, set and video were supplied by Ambion GmbH. Lighting designer Stephan Aue, who supported the band for the first time in 2015 on their arena tour, was once again responsible for the lighting design, relying on products from Elation Professional, among others.
A total of 10 compact Elation ACL 360i beam effect lights were used, as well as five of Elation’s new Dartz 360 LED beam/spot fixtures. The fall Sunrise Avenue tour marked the touring debut of the compact narrow-beam Dartz luminaire.
The smaller venues presented a special challenge for Ambion and Aue, who explained that the entire production had to fit in a single trailer. "We only had about 450 kilograms of cargo available, which restricts a lot," Aue said. "Design can be a challenge in small venues. We wanted to generate a small floor light setup, which we did using Ambion floor stands, so-called Tanktraps. We opened up several vertical levels of light that ascended in a staircase of 1.5m to 3m in height.
“A total of five Tanktraps were equipped with 10 ACL 360i units with one Dartz 360 placed on top. We bought the ACL 360i some time ago, which is the ideal tool for this type of use. We already used it on The Dark Tenor and like to use it as a floor beam for bigger productions.”
Aue is also very satisfied with the new Dartz 360. "W
USA - Texan evangelist Joel Osteen recently brought his Christian preaching to LA with a capacity crowd at the newly-refurbished LA Forum.
With a weekly TV audience topping seven million and an international monthly audience of more than 20m in over 100 countries, Osteen has been voted the most influential Christian in America. His Night Of Hope gatherings combine contemporary worship with live music, prayer time and inspirational messages.
A very different sonic challenge from most other live events, the principal technical requirement when presenting evangelism is vocal intelligibility - seamless full-frequency audio coverage, without ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ spots, delivered to every single person in the room at conversational levels. At the LA Forum that meant catering for a congregation of 18,000 and Special Event Services of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, used part of their Outline inventory in a powerful but unobtrusive system design that achieved everything that the client and crowd expected.
The main L/R system comprised 13 Outline GTO and a single GTO-DF (down-fill) cabinet per side plus 16 Outline Mantas for side-hangs and a dozen ground-stacked LAB21-HS subwoofers. The only other elements were six GTO-LIPF 082 stage lip-fill modules covering the rows immediately in front of the stage, with system power and control provided by Powersoft K-8 and K-10 amplifiers with Lake LM26 processors.
SES president Jason Farah said, “As Pastor Osteen does these Night of Hope events approximately once a month, the challenge is alway
Sweden - Alcons provided a new audio system for a 19th century theatre in Stockholm.
Vasateatern, which closed in 2010 during the transformation of the surrounding buildings into the new Scandic Grand Central, had poor sound-proofing and remained closed even after the hotel’s opening. To overcome the acoustic issues, the interior had to be rebuild on a smaller scale, making space for a sound-insulating air gap around the auditorium.
The new ‘floating box’ Vasateatern features most of the original fittings, but with modern acoustic materials, flexible seating and a brand new Alcons LR7 audio system.
Swedish systems integrator Electrosound has done the sound design and installation at a number of Scandic hotels, including the Scandic Grand Central complex. When it came to equipping the theatre, an Alcons LR7 system was chosen. This includes a main PA of 20 flown LR7, two flown QB363 bass units, four ground-stacked BF302 MK2 subs and a flown centre cluster of three more LR7 micro line-arrays.
Two Alcons SR9 and two more QB363 take care of mid-high front-fills, with two VR12s for stage-fills. Eight more SR9 cover the under-balcony seats and 16 CCS8 are used for a surround system - largely for sound effects, but available for use with movies if needed. The system is powered by Sentinel3 and Sentinel 10 amplified loudspeaker controllers.
All audio is distributed over a Dante network, mainly by a Bose ESP system and TiMax T2 surround effect processor. A Focusrite Rednet D16 seamlessly interfaces between the Sentinel units and the Dante n
The Netherlands - Dutch astronaut André Kuipers presented his SpaceXperience Live show as the central element of an immersive intergalactic journey in-the-round at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome, with Kuipers relating his many stories and real-life experiences working in space on various ESA programmes.
Lighting designer Henk-Jan van Beek from Dutch creative visual practice Light-H-Art was asked to light the show by production company LiveLane. He’s worked on many shows in the Ziggo Dome throughout his career, but this was the first time a concept like this was central to the 90-minute presentation.
Audiences were also treated to a simulated rocket blast off right in the middle of the venue, a jaw dropping piece of theatre for which Henk-Jan specified 40 x Robe BMFL WashBeam moving lights and 16 x Robe Cyclones to assist in creating all the drama and excitement of a real simulated rocket launch and a space voyage.
The BMFL WashBeams were the primary light sources for the whole presentation, with eight used as follow spots, while the Cyclones were instrumental to recreating an authentic blast off for the rocket.
From the first day he became embroiled in the project, Henk-Jan sat down with André and production who already had some really clear ideas about how he wanted the lighting to look.
The launch had to look super-spectacular, and at various times they needed lighting to represent elements like fire, water and earth as André was referring to these in his narrative. Lighting also had to assist recreating a sense of weightlessness
Brazil - Developed and published by Riot Games, League of Legends has become one of the world’s most popular third-person multiplayer online battle arena games, attracting more than 100m active players each month.
This year the Brazilian finals took place on 2 September at the Mineirinho Arena to a live audience of approximately 8,000 and was also broadcast live on ESPN in Brazil. Audio supplier Gabisom were there to ensure the gamers aural experience would match the intensity of the final battles taking place, trusting DiGiCo as their weapon of choice.
Gaining popularity since 2010, multiplayer online battle arena or ‘MOBA’ is currently one of the most widespread forms of game play and League of Legends is at the forefront of this, attracting thousands of eager gamers to the championships.
For this large-scale, multi-facted production, Gabisom was tasked with providing the entire audio system, including the OB truck. Wanting to be equipped with the most flexible solution possible, they chose a combination of three DiGiCo SD7s - one at Front of House, one at monitors for the opening ceremony and one in the broadcast truck - and two SD10s at monitors for the gaming element of the event, all running on an Optocore fibre loop, with an L-Acoustics K1 and K2 system used for the main PA and out-fills.
“For the opening ceremony, there was a live band and a lot of video mapping,” explains Eder Moura, system engineer for Gabisom. “For this, we used the three SD7s with two SD Racks, for each SD7, with the FOH console utilising 120 ch
UK - Cardiff-based events specialist 11th Hour will bring its 11th year in business to a close by supplying a huge New Year’s Eve fireworks spectacular to its home city.
Sayers Amusements, with whom 11th Hour work to deliver Cardiff’s Winter Wonderland, commissioned the public display which will be fired from Cooper’s Field in Bute Park on the stroke of midnight.
The six minute aerial show will comprise professional Category 1.3 explosives with calibres ranging from 75 - 200mm, culminating with a loud, rapid-fire finale. Fireworks are a growing area of 11th Hour’s portfolio, the company having already delivered a number of high profile displays, not least of which was at this year’s Pride Cymru Big Weekend in Cardiff.
The New Year’s Eve show will be its biggest to date but as 11th Hour Director and British Pyrotechnists Association qualified and registered firer, John Davies explains, the in-house team is well equipped for the challenge:
“We’re using fireworks that are not available to the general public. They arrive with us incomplete and we finish their construction in our licensed store and at the site, inserting suitable fuses, e-matches and inter-fusing materials to help sequence the show. Minutes before midnight, the system will be armed and when the clock strikes, it will take over and - ‘fire in the hole’ - the sky will explode with colour and a million points of sparkling light!”
(Jim Evans)
South Africa - For two days in November, Sandringham Farm was transformed into a village of worshippers as Christian bands from the UK, US, South Africa and elsewhere performed gospel.
Providing an uplifting visual backdrop to this celebration was a dynamic and ebullient lightshow of vivid colour washes and powerful aerial effects created by JP Willson of Unfazed Productions. Key to Willson’s transformative design was his collection of Chauvet Professional Rogue R2 Wash fixtures.
Willson hung 11 of the RGBW LED washes on a mid and rear stage truss, using them to reflect the mood of the music. The Rogue fixtures were used to sweep the stage with colors as well as for backwashing performers and aerial washing. The fixtures’ wide 12° to 49° zoom range allowed Willson to change his coverage area; while the output from their 19 15-watt LEDs provided him with enough output to have his washes far into the audience.
Joining the Rogue units on Willson’s rig were 16 Intimidator Hybrid 140SR fixtures from Chauvet DJ. Powered by a 140-watt discharge lamp, the combination spot, beam and wash effect created an impressive variety of looks during the two-day festival.
“The Intimidator Hybrid is a great value fixture,” said Willson. “Budget is always a concern when buying fixtures for events like this, and I’m always so impressed with the features this gives you for the investment.”
(Jim Evans)
China - TrueColor in Guangzhou City is the flagship venue of a chain of clubs created in 1995, currently owned and managed by Alliance Art Group.
TrueColor Guangzhou City recently sought upgrades to its audio system. After consultation with Mr. Tan who represents dealer Guangzhou EGG Technologies Company, Alliance Art Group called on DMT – Clair Brothers Chinese distributor – to help make the necessary improvements on behalf of TrueColor customers. Right on the heels of a complete upgrade and redesign of the layout and style of the club in June of 2017, the decision to call on Clair Brothers made sense.
TrueColor is a nightclub where music plays constantly, seven days a week with a full house, and permeates the entire establishment, so it has to sound awesome and perform reliably. After the redesign of the interior, the old system just didn’t fit the bill.
Guangzhou EGG Technologies Company, in conjunction with DMT did the design, installation and commissioned the project, supplied the gear and gave technical support to Alliance Art Group throughout the install.
The main system flanking the large feature video wall is three CAT215 per side with CS218 double 18-inch subs under the stage. Additional CS218s are spread through the club, tastefully integrated as cocktail table bases.
The system consists of a range of additional Clair Brothers speakers for distributed coverage including the CAT115, kiTCURVE12, CS18-M, FF2-HX, and kiT12 as bar-fills. Two kiTCURVE12s are used as centre-fill, paired with four kiT12s and two FF2-HXs, which
UK - Just like the fairy-tale glass slipper that glided effortlessly onto Cinderella’s foot uniting her and Prince Charming, lighting designer Andy Webb has designed a colourful and fitting lighting scheme for Cinderella, this season’s pantomime at Blackpool UK’s Grand Theatre, utilising entirely Robe LED products.
It’s the third year that Andy has been asked to light this popular panto for UK Productions. Returning to the same venue has some definite advantages he explains, both in terms of knowing the space and what you can and can’t achieve in it, and also having an ongoing relationship with the local crew and technicians.
As always, the challenge with pantos is having to do a massive amount of programming in a very short time to produce the intense, magical, high-impact visuals characteristic of the genre.
For the last three years, Andy had integrated more and more LED fixtures into his panto rigs and this year was able to reach the goal of lighting the entire show utilising LED sources, apart from 12 Source Four generics.
Two types of Robe fixtures were at the core of the design – the DL4S Profile and the Spiider LED wash beam, of which there were 10 each.
Due to the tight stage and wing space at the Grand Theatre, an original Matcham designed venue opened in 1894 and now Grade II listed, the set - developed by the UK Productions’ creative team – incorporated numerous flown cloths as well as four full stage scenic sets, flown practicals like chandeliers, two star cloths, over 3000 white dimmable Christmas ligh
Serbia - Philips Lighting reports that its newest stage lighting fixtures have helped to deliver a magical environment for the recent concert at Belgrade's Sava Center by leading Bosnian folk music artist, Bozo Vrećo.
To create this enchanted environment in the 4,000-seat Sava Center, Serbia's largest concert venue, lighting designer Nebojsa Milojevic required powerful lighting fixtures. They needed to be capable of delivering bright, crisp projections and striking beams and effects, and with enough presence to register even against the background LED screen. He settled on 60 lighting fixtures from the Philips Entertainment Lighting range, including VL6000 Beams, VLZ Spots and SL Hydrus 350 luminaires.
In bringing his critically-acclaimed show to Belgrade, the artist asked Milojevic to "paint with the lights and connect the eyes of the audience with the songs.". With this brief to guide him, Milojevic was given full creative control over the stage lighting. He says, "My design inspirations I find in nature. The goal for my design was to bring the audience on a magical journey through music, with the use of light and video."
He continues, "Using the beautiful gobos and intensive colours of the VLZ Spots and the SL Hydrus, I was able to create illusions of the forest and leaves against a background of dark, cloudy sky. And with the enormous power of the VL6000 Beams, I created lightning. Together, these fixtures successfully covered the 200 square meters of the stage and huge, black backdrop."
He adds: "I am really happy with the performance of