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Production News Headlines

STUFISH Unveils Groundbreaking Stage Design for the Inaugural Adriatic Sound Festival In Italy

17/02/2025

Claypaky Fixtures Shine for Sunidhi Chauhan’s “I Am Home” Concerts in Kolkata and Bangalore

17/02/2025

Richard ‘Wookie’ Whitley Engages Fans on Cody Johnson Leather Deluxe Tour with Chauvet Professional

17/02/2025

Robe Flies at The Panto

14/02/2025

ChamSys Powers Stunning Show for Those Damn Crows Arena Debut

14/02/2025

tube uk gets Festive

13/02/2025

Touring with DiGiCo desks provides a home away from home for Becky Hill’s engineers

13/02/2025

Creative Technology Middle East Makes Further Major Investment in Elation Lighting

12/02/2025

Creos makes dynamic UK debut on Christmas Light Trails

12/02/2025

High End Systems Zeo Adds Dramatic Effect at the Halftime Show

12/02/2025

Light Glorious Light!

11/02/2025

Adding Nuance to Hikaru Utada Science Fiction Tour Design

11/02/2025

Mikki Kunttu Reflects Essence of Apocalyptica with Chauvet Professional COLORado PXL Curve 12

10/02/2025

Squeek Lights Creates Big Beartooth Homecoming with Chauvet Professional

07/02/2025

Claypaky Sharpy X Frames Shine at First World Taekwondo Virtual Championships in Singapore

07/02/2025

Lighting Jedermann in Salzburg

06/02/2025

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder Christmas Shines with Bandit Lites

06/02/2025

tube uk rises to the occasion for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture Opening Event

05/02/2025

Giovanni Ricciardi Works Future Magic at Kappa FuturFestival with 100 Chauvet Professional Fixtures from ZaLight

05/02/2025

HALO Invests in Robe PAINTES

04/02/2025

Chauvet Professional Helps Nate Haber Invoke Power of Darkness for Imminence

04/02/2025

Ayrton Kyalami beams on Swedish Idol

04/02/2025

In love with Spectera: New in-ear experience for Joy Denalane and Max Herre

03/02/2025

Roland Greil Harnesses Brutus Firepower For 2024 Arabian Gulf Cup Opening Ceremony

03/02/2025

Chauvet Professional Helps IPS Set Stage for Gladiator 2 Premiere

31/01/2025

STUFISH Unveils Groundbreaking Stage Design for the Inaugural Adriatic Sound Festival In Italy

STUFISH Unveils Groundbreaking Stage Design for the Inaugural Adriatic Sound Festival In Italy
STUFISH Unveils Groundbreaking Stage Design for the Inaugural Adriatic Sound Festival In Italy

UK – STUFISH Entertainment Architects have been unveiled as the stage designers for the highly anticipated electronic Adriatic Sound Festival, set to take place at Fano Airport, Italy, 13-14 June, 2025. For two electrifying days, the airport will be transformed into a vibrant festival venue, drawing inspiration from Fano’s ancient Roman heritage as a hub for social connection. Marking its debut edition, the festival will bring together some of the world’s most renowned electronic music artists for an unforgettable experience.

At the heart of the festival’s design is STUFISH’s Infinity Stage, an architectural statement that seamlessly merges history with the future. Rooted in Fano’s rich Roman legacy – where classical architecture remains a defining element of the city’s identity – the stage draws inspiration from fundamental architectural forms, reinterpreted through a bold, futuristic lens.

One of the key inspirations for the Infinity Stage is the Arch of Augustus, a historic gateway built around 9 CE as part of Fano’s defensive walls, leading directly to Rome. STUFISH has reimagined the arch as a portal, symbolising the immersive and transformative power of music. By reinventing this iconic structure, the Infinity Stage serves as a bridge between antiquity and modernity, embodying the festival’s spirit of connection across time.

Fano, historically known as Fanum Fortunae, was once home to an ancient Roman temple dedicated to Fortuna, the goddess of luck and fate. This historical significance is echoed in the festival’s main stage, “The Temple”, conceived as a community meeting place where people gather for a shared sensory experience. Designed as a sculptural embodiment of the infinity loop, the stage visually reinforces the festival’s dialogue between past and future.

At the core of The Temple is a rotating central drum that houses the artists, dynamically shifting their positions throughout their performances. Unlike traditional static festival stages, this motion creates an ever-evolving focal point, allowing performers to engage with the audience in a dynamic and unpredictable way. Above the stage, a luminous halo casts ethereal light, pulsing in sync with the beats and rhythms of the music, further heightening the sensory experience.

Conceived as a temporary city, the festival space is both enclosed and expansive. Inspired by classical Roman arenas and coliseums, the circular layout fosters an intimate yet high-energy atmosphere. Four grandstands surround the main stage, providing elevated vantage points and panoramic views of both the performers and the crowd. Unlike traditional open-air festival designs, the 360-degree structure amplifies the sense of immersion, drawing festival-goers into a fully enveloping world of sound, light and movement.

Echoing the grandeur of classical Roman architecture, the festival arena is interwoven with towering columns, creating a dynamic network that guides attendees through the space.

Immersing the audience in a 360-degree sensory experience, a dynamic canopy of light shifts overhead while sound and turbine-like visuals swirl all around. Inspired by the revolving energy of an airplane engine, these mesmerising elements transform the space, amplifying the festival’s intensity in a striking artistic nod to its airport location.

More than just a stage, STUFISH’s Infinity Stage is an architectural and experiential phenomenon. By fusing the enduring legacy of ancient Rome with the boundless energy of electronic music, it creates a time-bending world. Through a masterful combination of historical references, cutting-edge technology, spatial design and audiovisual storytelling, Infinity transforms the festival into a living, breathing architectural performance: an immersive celebration of sound, space and the infinite energy of music.

For over four decades, STUFISH Entertainment Architects has been the visionary force behind some of the world’s most iconic live performances. In the past year alone, STUFISH has designed groundbreaking and culturally significant productions, including the Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds US tour, Adele’s acclaimed residencies in Las Vegas and Munich, and Sabrina Carpenter’s Short & Sweet tour. As STUFISH continues to evolve, it remains at the forefront of live performance innovation, pushing creative and technological boundaries to redefine the future of entertainment.

The Adriatic Sound Festival will take place from 13-14 June, 2025, at Fano Airport, Italy. The initial line-up includes some of electronic music’s most celebrated artists, including Sven Väth and Armand Van Helden, with more performers to be announced soon.

images: © STUFISH 

STUFISH Unveils Groundbreaking Stage Design for the Inaugural Adriatic Sound Festival In ItalySTUFISH Unveils Groundbreaking Stage Design for the Inaugural Adriatic Sound Festival In Italy

17th February 2025

Claypaky Fixtures Shine for Sunidhi Chauhan’s “I Am Home” Concerts in Kolkata and Bangalore

Claypaky Fixtures Shine for Sunidhi Chauhan’s “I Am Home” Concerts in Kolkata and Bangalore
Claypaky Fixtures Shine for Sunidhi Chauhan’s “I Am Home” Concerts in Kolkata and Bangalore

India – A wide array of Claypaky fixtures illuminated the Kolkata and Bangalore (Bengaluru) concerts on Sunidhi Chauhan’s ongoing “I Am Home” tour. Lighting designer Jasangat Sonpal selected 72 Claypaky Sharpy X Frames for both venues and added 32 HY B-EYE K25, 24 Tambora Batten Square, 48 Tambora Flash, 14 Sinfonya Profiles and two ReflectXion fixtures for the Kolkata show.

Sunidhi Chauhan is one of India’s most loved playback singers, or ghost singers, whose pre-recorded songs are dubbed into motion picture soundtracks replacing the actors’ voices.  She is a celebrated performer in her own right, known for her vocal range and versatility and recording in multiple languages.

Her ongoing “I Am Home” tour celebrates the idea of home through music, nostalgia and Chauhan’s dynamic stage presence. The Bangalore show last October was the first of a multi-city tour of India; the Kolkata show was staged on Christmas Eve. The tour heads for Singapore in March and North America in May and June.

“Sunidhi Chauhan is the modern-day lady rockstar of India,” says Sonpal. “With this tour she shows her versatility in all the major towns in India and abroad. She is known for many iconic Bollywood songs delivered with her powerful and bold voice. So, to match the stage lighting to the tonality and punch of her vocal capabilities we needed some powerful fixtures. Sharpy X Frames were the perfect fit for her keylights.”

Sonpal notes that, “the artist was very involved in the whole process of designing lighting for the event. We had a bunch of looks to create, from tight beams to spots and gobos with keylighting being of very high importance to Sunidhi.” He explains that the shows featured a new design involving only scaffolding and no trussing. “We had an LED screen seven metres high and put lighting in three layers on the scaffolding; we also used a lot of fixtures on the IMAG screen scaffolding.” Felix Remedios and Selvin Remedios of Reynold’s Sound & Lighting Services Pvt Ltd. provided the fixtures for the Bangalore concert, Naz Rahmani and Akbar Ali of Light N Light supplied the fixtures for Kolkata.

Sonpal chose Sharpy X Frames for keylighting for “the ability to use them in spot mode, beam mode and with practically all the gobos. They didn’t disappoint me one bit!”

The lighting designer selected more Claypaky fixtures for the Kolkata show. “We added Sinfonya Profiles because of their very high-quality light output,” Sonpal explains. “With the very high CRI and colours of Sinfonya, Sunidhi looked glamorous and gorgeous on camera with highlighted skin tones.” Seven Sinfonyas were used in followspot mode with six dedicated to keylighting and one placed upstage centre on the scaffolding.

Sonpal deployed 48 Tambora Flash fixtures as wash lights whenever Sunidhi sung classic rhapsodies. They also offered ease of switching between strobe and blinder. “Tambora Flash is a fixture I personally love; I consider them the most important fixture of my show. They were used to create a whole border around the LED screens, placed on top of the main stage LED screens and on top and on the sides of the IMAG screens. The brightness of these fixtures is really good!”

He added 32 Tambora Batten Squares as his main effects fixtures. “I love their versatility; they can be used for all types of shows. They provide a quick response to a very advanced level of pixel mapping, which saves lot of time programming these lights with pixel effects. We were so happy with the performance of the Tambora Battens that three songs were dedicated to using only these fixtures.  I was especially impressed with them.”

Sonpal also chose two ReflectXion moving mirrors, which he calls “a unique, one-of-a-kind fixture, a first for our show. We have already put them in our riders for all future shows.” 

Overall, Sonpal reports that the “reliability, colour temperature and performance of the Claypaky lights were superior to all other fixtures we’ve used. We didn’t have one complaint.”

He especially cites the support for the Kolkata show from local vendor Light N Light. “All the fixtures were very well maintained, the whole team was great and they achieved the entire setup in one day: given the fact that there was no trussing and each light needed to be pulled up 40 feet, they did a commendable job. Their team and Pankil Ahuja played a crucial role in my choice of Claypaky fixtures for this concert. Aabhas Kamble was the production manager for the concerts. Sunidhi and FOH sound engineer Tanay Gajjar also trusted my vision and helped us get quality Claypaky lighting for the concerts.”

In addition to acting as Lighting Designer for the concerts, Sonpal also served as the programmer.

www.claypaky.com  

Claypaky Fixtures Shine for Sunidhi Chauhan’s “I Am Home” Concerts in Kolkata and BangaloreClaypaky Fixtures Shine for Sunidhi Chauhan’s “I Am Home” Concerts in Kolkata and Bangalore

17th February 2025

Claypaky

Richard ‘Wookie’ Whitley Engages Fans on Cody Johnson Leather Deluxe Tour with Chauvet Professional

Richard ‘Wookie’ Whitley Engages Fans on Cody Johnson Leather Deluxe Tour with Chauvet Professional
Richard ‘Wookie’ Whitley Engages Fans on Cody Johnson Leather Deluxe Tour with Chauvet Professional

USA – The 19,000-seat Enterprise Center, home of the St. Louis Blues hockey team, is widely regarded as a state-of-the-art facility. Indeed, Pollstar has consistently ranked it as one of the top drawing concert arenas in the USA. But on Friday 24 January, a headline in the local St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper declared that the sleek downtown showplace had been "transformed into a honky-tonk."

Such is the infectious feel-good power of Cody Johnson's brand of country music. The multi-platinum CMA award-winning singer is continuing to work this kind of magic at arenas throughout North America, Australia and the UK, between now and the end of the summer on his Leather Deluxe Tour.

Moving right along with Johnson's lively music and charismatic stage persona, while enhancing the goodtime atmosphere, is a high-energy Richard ‘Wookie’ Whitley lighting design, complete with bold fast-moving aerial effects, a compelling video wall backdrop and (of course) a generous helping of immersive audience lighting that makes it easy for the crowd to join the party.

Helping Wookie with the latter are 34 Strike Array fixtures from Chauvet Professional, which, like the rest of the rig, are supplied by Bandit Lites. Included in this mix are ten Strike Array 4 blinders on the DS truss and 24 Strike Array 2 units on the trusses above the stage. The intense output Strike fixtures are flown on an impressively high rig that has a trim of 48-50 feet, depending on the venue, then works its way down in four-foot increments as it approaches upstage.

"On this tour, we are running our aerial package with the truss flipped," said Wookie. "This gives our spot and profile fixtures clearance while also providing perfect positions for the Strike Arrays. This way they can live in the truss without being removed or moved around, so we save a lot of time with the ins and outs.

"Also, Cody likes to see the crowd while talking to them and creating moments for all," continued Woolie. "I wanted to make sure that it was possible for him to do that this year all the way around the room. Thanks to the output of the Strike Arrays, we can accomplish this very easily. The Strike Arrays also have given me some really cool marquee style effects that everyone is enjoying."

Speaking of the rig's relatively high trim, Wookie noted that its height makes it easier to incorporate a video wall, which is new to the show this year. "We are using a video wall for different backdrop looks and a few surprises, so we needed to get the rig higher in the air than we had in the past," he explained. "We also wanted to make this rig look huge without taking up a lot of space, perception is everything this year!"

Although his lighting is creating a festive atmosphere at every venue, Wookie has been dead serious about exploring every nuance of light and colour to make his show more effective. For example, he is still "using and loving saturated colours," but has been dabbling in lighter shades as well. "I wanted to get out of my comfort zone this year and it has been a great decision," he said. "Just constantly mixing and figuring out what works or feels right has been quite an adventure and given me some great brain workouts."

Not surprisingly, Wookie has also made sure to reflect the personal elements of every song with distinctive lighting looks. "From lighting one of the band members for a special intro, to accenting a drum break down, or making a solo stand out, we want to support each moment in a unique way," he said, adding that fans will never "see or hear the same thing twice" in the set. 

By bringing his thoughtful approach to this tour, this designer is ensuring that everyone at this honky-tonk party is having an even better time.

17th February 2025

Robe Flies at The Panto

Robe Flies at The Panto
Robe Flies at The Panto

UK – Lighting designer Andy Webb specified Robe moving lights to be at the heart of his lighting designs for two high-profile pantomime shows in the United Kingdom, The Further Adventures of Peter Pan staged at the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury and Sleeping Beauty at the Festival Theatre in Malvern, two of 11 pantos presented this season by UK Productions.

As the proliferation of mad characters, slapstick comedy, innuendo and side-splitting humour flowed, so did the illumination, together – literally – with some cast members in Aylesbury, as the action and fun drew heavily on a series of spectacular flying gags, both on stage behind a drop-down projection screen and out into the audience.

At Aylesbury, the infrastructure needed to make this happen meant a few production compromises and the lighting department lost several ‘standard’ positions in this 1,200-capacity venue due to the installation of the flying systems, a fact that informed Andy’s general approach to lighting the show.

A large track from theatrical flying specialists Flying by Foy traversed from stage left to the upper circle enabling actors and props to fly out above the audience in a series of thrilling scenes that had everyone on their feet, gasping with wonder, while Andy was challenged to find new lighting positions to compensate for those that were now unavailable.

Another task was to conceal as many flying wires as possible, amplify the impact of those seat-edge moments and deal with the additional flying on stage, all of which reduced the already squeezed tight technical time and resulted in some intense overnight programming sessions for lighting which Andy and his team took in their stride. “Every challenge is also something else that drives us to deliver a great show,” he elucidated.

“Panto will often be the first theatrical experience for so many kids, so our job includes making it all as magical and mysterious as possible, so they really do believe it’s happening,” he noted, adding that children are also notoriously hard to impress when it comes to stagecraft!

For his spot-wash fixture ‘backbone’, Andy this year chose Robe ESPRITES and Spiiders, with 11 and 18 fixtures respectively, to which he added ten MegaPointes and six ParFect 150s all supplied by rental specialist, CEG, together with the lighting kit for Malvern and two other UKP productions.

With the two main overhead lighting bridges lost to the audience flying track, Andy compensated by utilising the proscenium arch drop-down bars and the side ladders more, with 14 fixtures rigged each side. “I really appreciated the power of the Spiiders and ESPRITES here” he commented, explaining that these positions proved effective for crossing the stage at a steep angle.

When combined with additional moving lights positioned on the front of circle bar, moving lights came into the stage from all angles so everything was fully flexible. The ParFect 150s were also positioned in these high side angled positions, great for lighting the forestage and cross-stage activities.

He also specified 16 Robe LEDBeam 150s which were scattered around at all levels and all angles, their small size perfect for filling any gaps.

ESPRITES on the side ladders zoomed out, with a variety of gobos added and an animation wheel dropped in which made up the “perfect” cover for flying elements as actors zipped above the audience, both highlighting them and simultaneously concealing with wires. Andy mimicked the automated flying speed and movement with the lights so everything was nicely synched.

These Spiiders and ESPRITES were the main workhorses of the show and as fixtures with which Andy is very familiar, assisted massively in achieving results during the incredibly tight programming windows.

Colour is hugely important in lighting Panto as the different worlds of the show are usually fantastical, offering designers the chance go wild when getting imaginative. Andy was “very grateful” to have all the power and versatility of the Spiider at his disposal, known for its excellent colours and colour-mixing properties.

“Spiiders enabled me to add layers of depth and bring a huge visual warmth and sense of vividness to the different pictures,” he said, adding that in this set up, the over-audience flying also meant physically less separation between stage and audience, another factor informing the fundamentals of the lighting.

On top of that, the side stage slip (lower) and upper positions were used for playing out certain parts of the performance, “so the whole spatiality of the room was changed, everything became more integrated which required even more interdepartmental collaboration than usual”.

The ESPRITES were great for quality key lighting and for specials, contributing to the many ‘wow moments’.

The MegaPointes, positioned onstage, produced super-bright shafts of light and especially with the prism effects inserted, helped conceal the auditorium flying wires. “There is nothing to beat a Robe MegaPointe in a magical situation,” quipped Andy.

In addition to these 51 Robe lights, he used a sprinkling of generic fixtures and plenty of SFX including low fog.

Programming, which was completed by Josh Gallagher, had to be super-accurate due to the exceptionally tight timing and to address all the challenges of lighting a panto with flying elements. Josh also operated the show for the five-week run of performances, a role he’s taken on at Aylesbury for the last three years.

Lighting for Sleeping Beauty at the Malvern venue saw Andy op for a more old-school aesthetic and with all the flying contained on stage, it was more about creating the right dynamics and narrative treatments with the lighting, for which he used Robe DL4S Spots, ParFect 150s, ParFect 100s and Spiiders, together with some other moving lights and a collection of generics.

Both shows have a full narrative arc that incorporates lightness, brightness and good contrasted to the gloom, doom and darkness of the sinister characters.

In Malvern, the ‘baddie’, Carabosse, was female and with numerous cross references to the musical Wicked (famous for its story of two witches), so Andy utilised plenty of green and purple looks for her scenes to underline her Jekyll and Hyde personality. This was interlaced with some clever comedy elements that also lightened things up, hinting at potential good lurking behind the evil! Andy really enjoyed adding lighting as a layer to her character.

“I took a much more musical theatre approach with this show,” he stated. “Having these Robe lights in the rig also gave me an edge, and increased the scope of what I could properly achieve with lighting.”

He programmed the Malvern show himself using an Avolites Tiger Touch II console, finding it “extremely quick,” and both of these pantos had around 300+ lighting cues in the consoles. Andy again noted how familiarity with the fixtures – and the console – was a huge advantage in maximising the available tech and programming time.

On the Tiger Touch II, utilising features like the Shape Generator and being able to set up very user-friendly theatre-style Cue Lists was another benefit.

His LX1 at Malvern was ex-NRG (Next Robe Generation, the brand’s educational initiative) student Ben Oakey, who had worked with him and the Robe team at the 2024 Total Production Awards.

Andy loves working in pantos because there are no restrictions on lighting the various worlds which are imaginary and often bordering on hallucinogenic, a space where “there’s no right or wrong” in your treatment, methodology and interpretation as long as it relates to the characters and scenes.

The sets for both productions were designed and produced by the UK Productions in-house creative team, with The Further Adventures of Peter Pan directed by Chris Nelson and Sleeping Beauty by Paul Boyd.

photos: by Barry Rivett

Robe Flies at The PantoRobe Flies at The Panto

14th February 2025

ChamSys Powers Stunning Show for Those Damn Crows Arena Debut

ChamSys Powers Stunning Show for Those Damn Crows Arena Debut

UK – "We didn't know what to expect," Those Damn Crows frontman Shane Greenhall told an interviewer about the band's first ever UK headline show on 14 December. The answer for Greenhall and everyone else who packed Cardiff's Utilita Arena was rock roaringly obvious.

From the moment Those Damn Crows took the stage and ripped into a full throttle rendition of "Who Did It," the hometown crowd screamed with delight at the top of their lungs. The crescendo got even more intense as the concert progressed, reaching new heights on the third song "Man On Fire" when pyro effects glowed throughout the stage.

Fresh off their wildly successful EU tour, the Welch rockers from Bridgend were back home and the celebratory atmosphere couldn't have been more electric. Underscoring the energy on stage and reflecting the music was a production and lighting design by Gary Sharpe of Creative Productions Solutions that was run by Adam McNally of Stage I1 Productions.

Key to making the immersive production run smooth was a collection of ChamSys products: the MagicQ MQ500M+ Stadium console at FOH, with a MQ500M back up, and a Magic Q MQ250M Stadium Console for side of stage SFX, along with GN10 and GN5 for network.

"This was the band's first arena show, and we wanted to make it very special," said Sharpe. "We did this in stellar fashion. Adam did a marvellous job as did Damo Hartshorn our SFX Operator. We were also greatly aided by Zig Zag Lighting Ltd., out main lighting provider. Neil Hunt (owner/founder of ZZ) went above and beyond with all the changes.

"ChamSys made things go smoothly for all of us," continued Sharpe. "I first encountered the console on cruise ships, but then picked it back up in 2018 and since then I like to have ChamSys on all my shows. As a very hands-on PM, I like to understand how the programming is coming along. Also, I like to be able to set up calls with the ChamSys technical support team."

Half of the show at Cardiff was time coded. For the half that was not, McNally used the Cue Stack feature on his console with busking elements included, so the show still had a live feel.

For McNally, who has been a ChamSys user since the start of his career, the Cardiff show represented a new experience. "This show was run solely on Group Cues," he said. "All effects were group cued. This was the first time I had ever worked that way. Thanks to ChamSys's user-friendliness, it worked out very smoothly."

McNally appreciated the value of Group Cues almost as soon as he entered the venue. "Some of the pixels in the fixtures were running backward compared to what we had in the console," he recalled. "Instead of having to redo a load of cues, we just took the Group Cues, spun things over and were good to go, just like that.

"Beyond that, ChamSys has a logical layout," continued McNally. "Plus, the speed and power of consoles gave us so much flexibility to create a very complex show with a lot of interesting elements. Also, the GeNetix nodes made it simple to close off circuits.

The new Countdown Timer feature in the Cue Stack variables was especially appreciated by McNally in this show. "This was invaluable to us," he said. "We greatly depended on the Cue Stack's countdown timer functionality, to monitor the amount of flame fluid/smoke fluid that had been used during the show."

Elaborating on that point, McNally noted that much of the time during the show the SFX was timecoded. However, there were points when these effects were trigged manually for some songs. This made it necessary to have a precise and accurate reading on how much fluid was left in the machines. "The Countdown Timer was essential at those moments," he declared.

Summing up the experience with ChamSys at Cardiff as the production manager, Sharpe added that having everything on one network was essential having the timecode section of the show. "Given the significance of this show, we wanted everything to be just right," he said.

Based on the response of the audience and the comments on social media, he and McNally did this in flying colours!

photos: Jason Bulpin

ChamSys Powers Stunning Show for Those Damn Crows Arena DebutChamSys Powers Stunning Show for Those Damn Crows Arena Debut

14th February 2025

tube uk gets Festive

tube uk gets Festive
tube uk gets Festive

UK – Manchester-based audio specialist tube uk dipped into its vast stock of event equipment to service eight special nationwide Christmas trail installations over the festive period that were produced and curated by art and live experience afficionados, Culture Creative Ltd (CCL), in partnership with Raymond Gubbay, a division of Sony Music.

The trails were in different locations up and down the UK in a variety of cool nature-related settings including Bedgebury National Pinetum and Forest, Leeds Castle in Kent, Wimpole Estate near Cambridge, Stourhead in Wiltshire, Chester Zoo and Dunham Massey, plus the flagship trail in Kew Gardens.

Each trail involved between 15 and 28 separate sonic installations – 156 in total – which were essential to enhancing the mood, atmosphere and magic, together with stunning lighting and SFX. The sound installations ranged in length from a compact 25 metres to as long as 400 metres, so ‘flexibility’ of the chosen kit was high on the agenda after ‘make everything sound fantastic’!

The soundscape sources – typically a standard looped audio track – were all running on classic Sony Walkman audio players of which tube uk has 208. Over several years of outdoor trail experience and experimentation, these have proved simple, reliable and effective for this application.

tube uk has 2,054 JBL Control 1 speakers in stock, which are a default for ‘trail’ installations, “small and solid sounding is the way to go,” says tube uk’s Melvyn Coote.

The Control 1s were driven by SubZero PAD800 amps of which tube has 176, plus 12 PAD600s and there was also 95 Behringer NX1000 amps on the different sites.

Most of tube uk’s 249 Yamaha MG06 mixers were deployed across the installations which consumed approximately 38 kilometres of YY speaker cabling. There are usually around 3,000 of these cables in the warehouse in varying lengths from even to 50 metres together with around 5,000 metres of 100m and 50m NL4 speaker cables, plus another 500 NL4 cables of ‘normal’ length.

The 2024-25 Christmas trails project consumed around 80% of tube’s specific inventory for these kinds of shows, and all of this planning required some nifty number crunching!

This kit has grown and the systems refined over recent years with an amount of testing and experimentation leading to a go-to specification for good, cost-effective audio solutions for the ever-popular trail sector, developed and optimised to work in the most demanding environments.

They are robust enough to stand up to the English winter weather while sounding fantastic for the hundreds of thousands hitting the winter trails each season.

Once the different trail’s creative and content elements have been conceived by CCL’s managing director Zoe Bottrell and her team, Melvyn and tube come in to discuss audio requirements for each individual installation. They assess speaker placement and whether these need to be both sides or a single side of paths and walkways, together with the volumetric areas needing to be covered in any of the open or gathering spaces.

Usually, speakers will be positioned every eight to ten metres apart, but some can be spaced up to 15 metres.

The main challenges for this project were the sheer amount of kit needed, the logistics entailed in prepping and installing 156 different systems in a simultaneous period all over the UK and naturally, once on site, the weather is always the biggest issue, coupled with winter’s short daylight hours.

Despite 2024 year being generally drier than previously, some sites were badly battered by Storm Bert which wreaked metrological havoc across much of the UK and Ireland in late November, its effect temporarily closing down several trails due to high winds and torrential rain.

In addition to the sound systems, tube also has the crewing detail down to a fine art.

Three people – one experienced technician plus two others – installed the majority of the sites in three to five days. Kew was rigged by two people over a 14-day period and tube now has five chief engineers who are very competent leading a team to install each site.

Get-outs can also be galvanising, as they all have to be completed in one or two days or ‘ASAP’ around the same time within the first few days of January.

“And a few words of praise for our fantastic warehouse crew,” adds Melvyn, “who get landed with the gargantuan task of drying out, cleaning up, de-humidifying, testing and restoring the kit to full working order after several weeks of harsh outdoor labour: that is a lot of work!”

He notes that with all the kit back in the warehouse and sorted, it will – together with tube uk’s crew – soon be getting ready for more immersive adventures in the spring / summer of 2025.

photos: Kat Gollock and Geraint Lewis

tube uk gets Festivetube uk gets Festive

13th February 2025

Touring with DiGiCo desks provides a home away from home for Becky Hill’s engineers

Touring with DiGiCo desks provides a home away from home for Becky Hill’s engineers

Worldwide – Becky Hill has worked hard since appearing on the UK The Voice in 2012 and, to date, is the only contestant to have achieved a British number one single. A British singer-songwriter, she has gone from strength to strength, rapidly increasing the size of venue that her tours visit. The 2024 tour, Believe me now?, has seen her play the UK, America, New Zealand and Australia. Engineers Anna Dahlin and Robyn Hannah are using DiGiCo Quantum 338s at both front of house and monitor positions respectively, alongside an SD and SD-Mini rack each, plus an additional SD-Nano rack on stage to accommodate support bands. A final SD-Nano rack is positioned at the front of house position to facilitate a B-stage moment.

Touring arena sized venues is a massive logistical undertaking and juggling a mixture of full production shows and fly-ins means that finding the path to consistency can take time and energy. Walking up to any DiGiCo console not only provides the excellent sound quality and reliability required to make the show happen, it also comes with the benefit of a friendly face, as Dahlin and Hannah have found out.

“I met Becky back in 2012. When she started out with her own band in 2020, she called me and asked me to get involved. I’ve been touring with her ever since,” Dahlin explains. “Until recently, we could fit the show on one SD rack each. However, due to the size of the set-up in 2024, we needed to add a Mini rack per console and two Nano racks. Robyn and I spent a long time arranging the input list in order to use a single show file wherever we went, as the show scaled up and down.”

The range of features on a DiGiCo Quantum 338 makes mixing multi-element shows like Becky Hill’s, that balance live instruments with drum and bass tracks, much more manageable. At the front of house position, Dahlin is utilising the Quantum 338’s range of compression, reverb and EQ and has been able to navigate the changes between size of shows and venues.

“The show is heavily reliant on snapshots. In addition, I use groups to feature sections of players,” Dahlin says. “I've also got a bunch of macros to make global changes in a cappella and instrumental moments that allow me to make global changes quickly.

Hannah is equally at home with the DiGiCo Quantum 338, relying on the onboard effects and features to keep her monitor mixes running smoothly.

“I’ve been touring with Becky Hill for about three years,” she explains. “Currently we are using 21 stereo mixes for people on and off stage, so workflow is important. I use groups and macros to make sure I can respond quickly. The large surface layout of the Quantum 338 is also great for keeping organised, which means I can work from muscle memory without taking my eyes off the stage.”

Both engineers appreciate the onboard effects and rely on Quantum for most of their EQs and dynamic processing. Monitors and FOH have been expanded with an outboard SSL Fusion each. Hannah uses the SSL over Becky’s IEM mix to gain additional stereo width. Dahlin, at front of house, uses the SSL sparingly over the master bus and has an additional Bricasti reverb for Becky’s vocal.

“The Mustard processing is in use across most channels and the Naga 6 has been a real game changer because I’ve not needed anything external,” Hannah says. “For Fly shows, it’s great. Because there is nothing to set up, I load my file from my USB and it’s done. It keeps everything consistent.”

Naga 6 is part of DiGiCo’s Spice Rack and is a six band Dynamic EQ, allowing frequency specific dynamic control, but it is not just the mustard processing and Spice Rack that Dahlin and Hannah appreciate about being part of the DiGiCo family.

“I really enjoy using DiGiCo desks because the support you get from them as a brand is great; you can always pick up the phone, from any country, and ask anything,” Hannah says. “Even at festivals, they’ll just be there to see how it’s going and whether you need anything. I really appreciate having someone come up and check that you’re doing ok!”

For Dahlin, the benefit of knowing there is always someone there to assist if required has been fundamental, as she concludes.

“I don’t think I’ve met anyone from any other company, but I’ve met DiGiCo’s Mark Saunders loads of times, and the team in America,” she says. “It’s a huge help to put names to faces and have that personal relationship.”

13th February 2025

Creative Technology Middle East Makes Further Major Investment in Elation Lighting

Creative Technology Middle East Makes Further Major Investment in Elation Lighting

UAE – Creative Technology Middle East (CTME) has invested significantly in Elation lighting, adding to a growing inventory of Elation gear to meet the increasing demand in the Middle East for flexible solutions that can quickly adapt to indoor and outdoor use.

Creative Technology has increasingly turned to Elation lighting solutions in the last few years, with the latest purchase adding to a 2023 investment in Proteus Excalibur moving head beam lights and KL Panel XL IP softlights. They have added more of each model to inventory along with KL PAR FC IP, Pulse Panel FX and KL Panel fixtures.

CTME and Venuetech LLC, Elation’s exclusive distributor in the region, have cultivated a robust and long-standing partnership that has played a pivotal role in CTME’s investment. “We continue to partner with them due to their consistent innovation, reliability and outstanding support,” stated CTME head of lighting Sam Connolly. “We are very excited about this latest lighting investment which will allow us to take on more diverse and challenging events while providing clients with the latest lighting technology.”

Creative Technology is a global leader in AV technology for the entertainment industry with a reputation for adopting leading-edge innovation. With offices in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, CTME has played a key role in the Middle East’s renown for producing stunning, large-scale events and spectaculars. The company services a wide range of market sectors, from entertainment to corporate, as well as exhibitions, broadcasts and high-profile sporting events.

Connolly says the initial investment in the Proteus Excalibur and KL Panel XL IP fixtures was a strategic move based on their exceptional performance in key projects. “After seeing how well these fixtures met the high demands of large-scale outdoor and indoor events, we made the decision to invest further in them in 2024,” he said.

The Proteus Excalibur, a full-featured IP65-rated beam fixture so bright it competes with xenon searchlights, stood out for its high lumen output, precision beam control and ability to withstand the region’s harsh environment, according to Connolly. “Its success in delivering powerful, reliable lighting for outdoor events, concerts and large productions over the last year led to the decision to purchase 40 additional units to meet the increasing demand for these types of fixtures in diverse applications.”

Similarly, the studio-optimised KL Panel XL IP proved a reliable choice for CTME for events requiring soft, high-quality lighting in various conditions, including outdoor settings. The fixture’s superior colour rendering, broad light output from an RGBWLC LED array and weatherproof design made it indispensable for film productions, TV broadcasts, and live events.

“The recent purchase of 20 more KL Panel XL IP plus 40 of the smaller KL Panel was driven by the rising demand for versatile lighting solutions that could seamlessly transition between indoor and outdoor applications,” Connolly said. “This continued investment reflects our commitment to staying ahead of industry trends and ensuring that our clients have access to the best technology for creating unforgettable visual experiences.”

Earlier in 2024, head of lighting Connolly and CTME head of procurement Danijel Blazevic identified additional lighting needs at the Prolight+Sound tradeshow, where Venutech’s JP de Vernon was integral in presenting the latest Elation lighting gear and arranging for follow-up demos and shoot-outs. The collaboration resulted in CTME expanding their capabilities further by adding 252 KL PAR FC IP LED lights and 300 Pulse Panel FX to inventory.

The KL PAR FC IP is a compact, full-colour-spectrum, IP65-rated LED fixture that pairs modern technology with a classic PAR design, serving as an excellent key, fill and area wash light source. At the same time, the Pulse Panel FX is a powerful, all-in-one strobe, blinder, wash and eye candy effect useful for dynamic effects and direct view applications. Its continuous 360° pan/spin and 180° tilt add an extra layer of dynamism and at 100,000 lumens, it can be used on big spectaculars and stadium shows.

“The addition of the full-colour KL PAR FC IP and Pulse Panel FX open up new creative possibilities for designers and producers,” Connolly stated. “These fixtures were chosen for their versatility, robust IP ratings and unique effects capabilities, making them ideal for both outdoor and indoor use.”

CTME collaborated closely with Venutech to acquire the new lighting equipment, with JP de Vernon playing a vital role in the negotiation. His long-standing relationship with CTME, established before his tenure at Venutech, was crucial to the agreement. “It’s just been a very good relationship over the years, very open and honest,” he said. “We often bounce ideas off each other and have really developed trust and a good rapport between the two companies.”

JP added that this latest decision to invest in Elation was a real buy-in from the entire CT team. “Elation’s fixtures, with their IP rating and rugged build, stand out as the perfect fit for the harsh Middle Eastern environment. With reduced maintenance and faster turnaround times, they enhance operational efficiency and ultimately save money.” The strong backing from both Venuetech and Elation, including a direct relationship with Elation’s international sales manager Jonas Stenvinkel, has cemented the long-term partnership between CTME, Venuetech and Elation.

Since 2022, CTME has steadily increased its stock of Elation products, which now exceeds well over 1,000 fixtures, and continues to rely on this trusted relationship for future growth.

12th February 2025

Creos makes dynamic UK debut on Christmas Light Trails

Creos makes dynamic UK debut on Christmas Light Trails
Creos makes dynamic UK debut on Christmas Light Trails

UK – The UK’s popular Christmas Light Trails, which have increasingly gained currency since covid, create an almost magical and magnetic visitor experience. This winter, they have provided a perfect opportunity for GLP’s Creos washlight to make its debut at two National Trust country estates: Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire and Stourhead House, a Palladian style villa in Wiltshire.

Both form part of a large portfolio of outdoor events for Culture Creative, who specialise in delivering light art experiences: everything from fire gardens to Halloween events and outdoor visitor experiences. These two trails, covering around 2km each, were produced in partnership with promoters, Sony Music.

Culture Creative’s head of lighting (and senior designer), Tony Simpson, used five Creos at Stourhead while accomplished freelance LD, Adam King, took a different approach at Wimpole where four were deployed as eye candy on the steps of the stately home.

Creos leverages the strengths of GLP’s powerful new X5 platform, offering an advanced colour gamut and unrivalled versatility. Equipped with 18 x 40W RGBL LEDs, arranged in three rows of six pixels each, it offers breathtaking output, with a motorised 1:12 zoom and seamless 190° tilt.

Creos’ IP65 rating further makes it a compelling choice for large scale temporary visitor experiences such as this, which Culture Creative also mastermind in the US and Australia.

Tony Simpson could immediately see the fixture’s many advantages. “Having a product like Creos was brilliant, especially being the first in the UK to use it. Its IP65 rating, smooth movement and the fact you can run it in individual pixel mode enables a designer to do a lot of clever things.” For these deployments all were programmed in mode 5 DMX Multipix Advanced.

Both designers used Creos predominantly as eye candy to arrest the attention of visitors. Said King: “I jumped at the opportunity to use Creos knowing it was an IP-rated unit that would deliver nice eye candy and washes and create a ‘stop and stare’ moment.

“We try and change things each year, as there are a lot of repeat audiences; so this year we did a big time-coded show to music at the house which is where we used Creos. Four units were placed on the steps of the hall, time-coded to a Loki remix of the orchestral Carol of the Bells.

“I did a lot of swooping out with colour from the centre of the building and Creos gave us some real points to hit, colour bumps etc. They are so present: highly effective and sufficiently punchy to enable tight beam work, pointing them up in the sky. I had four hazers to accentuate the beams and on one night it was naturally foggy, which was incredible, the effect was just brilliant!

“Creos’ versatility gives you the best of all worlds; I could wash the building, tilt them towards the audience to produce little twinkles or put them up to the sky; great eye candy and we didn’t have a single failure. For events and outdoor work, they are perfect.

Over at Stourhead Tony Simpson was designing his fifth consecutive show. However, an accredited ‘Dark Skies Reserve’ site any light emanating above a horizontal plane is prohibited. But this didn’t stop the designer, who got to work with an inspired approach at the end of the trail where a gateway with turrets marks the entrance to the main drive.

The Creos were used as eye candy at the top of the battlements, synced to a pop-based soundtrack. “Having an IP-rated unit that can change colour and be programmed into different modes is phenomenal. They were very effective in delivering a lot of twinkly eye candy effects and were lovely to work with, producing a highly effective walkout piece,” he said.

Lighting inventory for these events was provided by White Light and IPS.

photos: James Sharples

www.glp.de

12th February 2025

GLP

High End Systems Zeo Adds Dramatic Effect at the Halftime Show

High End Systems Zeo Adds Dramatic Effect at the Halftime Show
High End Systems Zeo Adds Dramatic Effect at the Halftime Show

USA – On Sunday, 9 February, High End Systems Zeo fixtures lit up the much-anticipated halftime show in New Orleans. Among the talented crew who put on the world-class show were lighting designer Al Gurdon, lighting director Ben Green of 22 Degrees, gaffer Alen Sisul, moving light programmer and lighting designer Mark Humphrey of TruCreative Design, and moving light programmer and lighting director Eric Marchwinski of Earlybird Visual. The lighting package was supplied by PRG.

“We had a very clear aesthetic approach to this year’s halftime show, which was very much aligned with the wishes of the artist’s camp,” says Gurdon. “This was to always aim for contrast and lighting angles different from those of conventional television lighting. We wanted to prioritise drama over ‘beauty light.’ It needed to feel monolithic and synchronised to the heavy beats, without the ‘sparkle’.”

To support this approach, 88 Zeo automated luminaires were placed on the mid-audience rail upstage of the main camera point of view. Zeo features a unique, square face design, highlighted by a central LED monolith, four reflectors and four RGBW engines. For high-intensity moments, Zeo is capable of delivering 30,000+ lumens. Humphrey says: “The Zeo has good colour range, zoom and versatility. You can treat it as a simple wash fixture or an effect fixture with its multiple pixels. I like the ability to have the fixture with the frosted lens or without, as it can create an entirely different look.” 

“Given that the show was lit with an emphasis on heavy directional gestures, the row of Zeos offered a versatile option to make effects with and wash a large area, along with the smoke in the air,” notes Green. “Having the pan and tilt also made it a good option, as we were able to sweeten it for camera more than a static strobe fixture. It works well as both a space filler seeing the lens on camera and as an aerial effect light which we leaned on heavily here.”

Both the face design and output of Zeo proved beneficial for the televised event. Marchwinski adds: “The Zeo gave us a dense system of light with a large aperture and noticeable visual footprint on camera. The distinct look the face of the fixture has on camera lends itself to camera backgrounds for a smaller scale show. On this show, the density and throw of the fixture were showcased, as well as the excellent output.”

Wrapping up the high-profile event, Gurdon says: “The Zeos were a great asset in creating the show’s heavy dynamics. They are a bright fixture with good colour, and worked well as a dramatic in-to camera effect. Because of its scale, we have used them on the halftime show in a fairly simple way but can imagine they would have a lot of versatility in other contexts as well. I would definitely spec them again.”

12th February 2025

Light Glorious Light!

Light Glorious Light!
Light Glorious Light!

UK – The much-loved musical Oliver! has made a triumphant return to the West End at the Gielgud Theatre. With Simon Lipkin as Fagin, Shanay Holmes as Nancy and Aaron Sidwell as Bill Sikes, this latest revival brings Charles Dickens’ iconic tale of young Oliver Twist to life once more. Cameron Mackintosh’s new production, directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne, with co-direction by Jean-Pierre van der Spuy, showcases a lighting design by multi-award-winning Paule Constable and Ben Jacobs. To realise their creative vision, they turned to White Light (a d&b solutions company) to supply the show’s lighting rig.

Since its original West End premiere in 1960, Oliver! has seen numerous revivals, yet each iteration brings a fresh perspective. Paule Constable, having previously lit the 2009 Theatre Royal Drury Lane production, relished the opportunity to return. “I love the story of Oliver! and Dickens’ original book,” she shares. “For this production, I wanted to create a nostalgic atmosphere while making the lighting an integral part of the world on stage. Lez Brotherston’s set design means the lights are woven into the picture, framing this fragmented Dickensian landscape with modern technology. This contrast between old and new allows us to craft the right emotional depth. Light itself plays a role in the narrative: as Oliver is drawn into the darkness, the lighting helps tell his journey towards the light.”

A distinctive aspect of this production is its co-lighting design by Paule Constable and Ben Jacobs, a partnership that brought fresh energy to the process. Ben reflects on their collaboration: “This was the first time I co-designed a production with Paule. It’s not something that happens often in theatre, but working alongside someone of Paule’s calibre was an incredible experience. We were able to bounce ideas off each other in a way that constantly developed the design. Paule’s deep familiarity with the show complemented my fresh perspective; I hadn’t seen previous productions or the film adaptation. This allowed us to approach the lighting with a stripped-back aesthetic that creates a more intimate connection with the audience.”

Following its run at Chichester Festival Theatre, transferring the production to the Gielgud required careful redesign. With the West End venue’s smaller stage in mind, Paule and Ben sought versatile lighting solutions.

“We relied on the Martin Mac Ones, which were a revelation in this space: their compact size and lightweight design made them perfect,” Paule explains. “At Chichester, where we had a bit more room, we used them as footlights and they were fantastic.”

The duo also utilised the ETC Halcyon Titanium and the Martin Mac Encore Performance, chosen for their painterly and nostalgic qualities, while the GLP X5 provided saturated tones that could cut through the rest of the design.

Interestingly, despite the dominance of modern lighting technology, traditional fixtures still played a vital role. “We loved using old-fashioned PAR 64s and scrollers,” Paule reveals. “They helped us capture the analogue aesthetic that fits so beautifully within this Victorian world.” Ben adds: “Parcans and scrollers might be considered old technology, but for me, they are the backbone of the lighting design. They are in constant view of the audience, almost part of the scenery itself. That’s why we insisted on using PAR 64s rather than a modern LED equivalent, nothing on the market quite replicates what scrollers can do.”

For Paule, lighting is about storytelling. “Lighting should never feel separate from the characters. It’s about dramaturgy, about emotion. Take Who Will Buy: this moment is about warmth, light, hope and possibility, a world Oliver has never known before. We reflected that with tungsten tones to create that sense of magic and wonder.”

Having collaborated with White Light on numerous projects, Paule and Ben knew they were in good hands. “Working with the WL team was fantastic, they truly understand theatre designers and go the extra mile,” Ben states. “They were instrumental in helping us pick the right lighting equipment, particularly with their insight from Chichester.”

White Light’s hire business development manager, Stuart Porter, echoes the sentiment: “We’re delighted to have supplied the lighting rig for Oliver! and to have worked once again with Paule and Ben. Our relationship spans many years, and it’s been fantastic to support both the Chichester and West End productions.”

With its unforgettable score featuring Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two, I’d Do Anything, Oom Pah Pah, and As Long As He Needs Me, Oliver! remains one of the most beloved musicals of all time.

photos: Ben Jacobs

11th February 2025

Adding Nuance to Hikaru Utada Science Fiction Tour Design

Adding Nuance to Hikaru Utada Science Fiction Tour Design

South-East Asia – Creative studio FragmentNine (F9) led by Jeremy Lechterman was asked by creative director / production designer Jason Ardizzone-West of JAW Studio to collaborate on the lighting elements of an impressive production design for J-pop singer/songwriter and superstar Hikaru Utadas 2024 tour, as the artist returned to live performance after a six-year hiatus for an extensive tour of Japan and Asia, supporting a new album project, Science Fiction.

The lighting design included large numbers of Robe fixtures including 81 ESPRITES, 72 MegaPointes, 26 TetraXs and three Robe BMFL Wash Beam EVs running on a three-way RoboSpot system, all supplied in Japan by lighting vendor Kyoritz.

Jasons initial discussions with the artist started a year prior to the tour. "We talked about wormholes, portals, Kubrick's monoliths, Emma McEvoy's sand dune photographs, and how we wanted to challenge the expectations and perceptions of how a J-Pop arena concert should look and feel,” he explained.

Their goal was to imagine an operatic-like space that was both familiar and alien, ancient and modern, a mysterious landscape that is initially a sleeping machine – a portal to another level of consciousness which is slowly awakened by the energy of the audience activated by Utada's music”.

From this alien desert landscape, nine large monolithic sculptures emerged to assist a highly imaginative journey. These were built with a skin of Roe Vanish 8S LED video tiles and internally lit and juxtaposed with three luminous plinths on which the musicians were positioned.

Jeremy and Jason have been wanting to work together for some time, and this presented a perfect opportunity. Together with video designer Jackson Gallagher of F9, this creative triumvirate pooled ideas and forged creative mixed-media treatments that worked harmoniously, transforming the space into a series of emotionally charged environmental settings unique to each song.

A major challenge for lighting was capturing and integrating the scale of the 100ft wide landscape design, and another starting point was that 75% of the lighting fixtures needed to be floor-based to ensure the integrity and impact of the scenography.

The Robe ESPRITES and MegaPointes constituted all the spot and beam fixtures on the plot, and they were on F9s specification right from the start.

This was due to their reliability, excellent color rendering, and a number of other refinements, noted Jeremy: ESPRITES and MegaPointes were a quick and easy choice, and Kyoritz had them in stock, so everything worked out.”

The ESPRITES were deployed in two long lines, one below the stage at the back, similar to a horizon, with another row above the main upstage video wall, with the balance deployed on the overhead rig.

They were used to assist in creating shadows against the monolith video sculptures and to help push and radiate the energy and movement of the video content that was also at the core of the design.

The nature and precision of the scenography required the artists to be lit very specifically, to enhance the spatiality of Jasons original concept,” said Jeremy, adding that the ESPRITES’ zoom is excellent and the brightness through the full zoom range and the clean beam field were characteristics needed to light in this style.

Jeremy has been using MegaPointes since the fixture was launched in 2017. Like many, he still finds them to be essential tools today as theyre his hybrid fixture of choice finding their way onto almost every design he creates.

For superstar Hikaru Utada, they were rigged in the over-stage grid and used for pulling visuals away from the floor and adding height and layers of complexity to the design.

The BMFL EVs on the RoboSpots were used in rear and two high side positions for keylighting and low lighting as there was no front lighting on the show apart from in the B-stage area. Jeremy is equally as enthusiastic about these fixtures, noting that they worked flawlessly” every night.

Hikaru Utada is one of the most influential and successful Japanese singers and voices of all time. The tour was also a retrospective and a mercurial mix of her music spanning 25 years, a vast back catalogue embracing multiple genres all presented with her own highly individual style and flourish.

The goal of lighting was to always try to enhance but not overpower,” underlined Jeremy. We had this gorgeous landscape and content for this show, so for light to be reinforcing those choices was a decision we made collectively,” as well as an illustration of the strength of his relationship with video designer Jackson Gallagher.

Jeremy concluded that lighting video and scenography all working together as one source of truth” presented a strong vision for the production and it also made lighting the show relatively easy.

Jeremy and his team, including lighting programmer Erin Anderson and associate designers Sydney Asselin and Alex Talbot, really enjoyed working on the tour and having to think out of the box to help realize this ambitious and provocative designed environment. F9s project manager was Rob Kuhn.

Kyoritz’shead of lighting was Tomokazu Takahashi, and the lighting Interpreter was Michiko Rowson.

The collaboration between JAW Studio and F9 was so productive, successful, and enjoyable that they have subsequently announced a new joint project – loudbox – a live entertainment design collective that aims to blur the lines between concerts, theatre and architecture through creative direction, production, lighting, and video design.

photos: Jason Ardizzone-West and Jeremy Lechterman

Adding Nuance to Hikaru Utada Science Fiction Tour DesignAdding Nuance to Hikaru Utada Science Fiction Tour Design

11th February 2025

Mikki Kunttu Reflects Essence of Apocalyptica with Chauvet Professional COLORado PXL Curve 12

Mikki Kunttu Reflects Essence of Apocalyptica with Chauvet Professional COLORado PXL Curve 12
Mikki Kunttu Reflects Essence of Apocalyptica with Chauvet Professional COLORado PXL Curve 12

USA – The official announcement for the band's just launched North American tour refers to them as "cello rockers."  Admittedly, at first the term seems oxymoronic, kind of like sauerkraut ice cream, or a 220-pound jockey! Is it tasteful? Is it even possible?

Of course, only those not yet familiar with the Finnish trio Apocalyptica would ask such questions. The three classically trained musicians from Helsinki's prestigious Sibelius Academy fuse two different worlds, playing metal rock (often covers of Metallica hits) on their cellos with an unbridled ferocity that ranks with the best bone crushing bands of the genre.

With notes relentlessly jumping off their cello strings, Apocalyptica blows past all comfort zones, which of course, is at the heart of any metal music performance. As they blaze new paths in symphonic metal, the band is attracting a growing legion of fans throughout the world.

Among Apocalyptica's admirers is renowned lighting designer Mikki Kunttu, who has worked with them on a few occasions since 2007. "I love the band, and it is always so great to work with them," said Kunttu. "I have the highest appreciation for what they do and for who they are."

Kunttu is showing this appreciation in stunning fashion with his lighting design for Apocalyptica's current APMB4C Vol 2. tour, which began its 24-city North American leg on 6 February in Washington DC. 

Prior to the North American tour, Apocalyptica did a very successful European run of the show. Kunttu also worked on that and he captured the spirit of his client's music and stage persona by bending light in unimaginable ways in a design that is bold, provocative, at times even menacing and always compelling. In creating his powerful geometric looks for the EU run, he was aided by an impressive collection of COLORado PXL Curve 12 fixtures from Chauvet Professional. 

Kunttu artfully arranged the motorized RGBW COLORado battens in three identical rows of nine units each. His design called for the downstage row to sit on the deck, while the second row is elevated 30cm, and the third 60cm. Not only did this instantly create a perspective, it also allowed the band to fit nicely between the rows.

"I created the major part of this design back in September 2023," noted Kunttu. "One of the main ideas was to get the PXL Curves on board and to use them exactly like this, so we could create layers on stage and very effectively manipulates the stage deck appearance.

"This layered concept is at the core our design," continued Kunttu. "Once we determined that concept, we needed to find a rental company that would be able to deliver 27 units. I actually did a shoot-out with almost every other LED pixel bar available. In the end, there was no chance in hell I would spec anything else for this tour."

Kunttu discussed how his design with its stark angles and bold contrasts reflects Apocalyptica's sound. "Light in Apocalyptica takes a very percussive role, a lot of times tumbling hand in hand with the drums and the beats and the fills," he remarked. "Then, on the other hand, the visual element also needs to have its share of theatrical fairy dust sprinkled on it. This particular design also leans towards some kind of a brokenness, it does not want to be always so symmetrical at all. I think I would actually want to take it even further that way, if I get another chance. 

"So, the lighting in this show was very much rhythmic and percussive and its forces are blinding and aggressive," continued Kunttu. "It was all about piercing beams, blinding strobes, flashing walls of light. The aim was to deliver an energy that feels and looks as if the soul of the song has come alive."  

At points during the EU shows, the sharp black and white patterns in Kunttu's design were broken up by seamless integrated flows of bold and subtle colours. "I gave our programmer Pekka Martti a lot of freedom with colours," said Kunttu. "He is more daring in terms of colour than me. The only colours I never like are pink/magenta on skin and also, usually, I'm not a big fan of yellow. Pekka did an excellent job on the EU leg of the tour as did our operator Joonas Liesimaa." 

Close collaboration, along with an inspired design produced many memorable moments on the EU leg of the tour, including one of Kunttu's favourites: a kabuki drop at the start of the show. Like many moments, the kabuki reveal was fresh and original, not surprising qualities in a show supporting a band that, in true oxymoronic fashion, has blended two apparent opposites into one beautiful creation. 

Mikki Kunttu Reflects Essence of Apocalyptica with Chauvet Professional COLORado PXL Curve 12Mikki Kunttu Reflects Essence of Apocalyptica with Chauvet Professional COLORado PXL Curve 12

10th February 2025

Squeek Lights Creates Big Beartooth Homecoming with Chauvet Professional

Squeek Lights Creates Big Beartooth Homecoming with Chauvet Professional
Squeek Lights Creates Big Beartooth Homecoming with Chauvet Professional

USA – By any measure, 2024 was a very good year for Beartooth. The hard charging metal rockers reached No. 1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Air Play charts with their hits "Might I Love Myself" and "I Was Alive," while their LP "The Surface" charted Number 2. And then, no less than Rolling Stone highlighted the band on its list of "10 Artists You Need to Know."

All this success calls for a celebration and that's exactly what this band from Ohio treated fans to, kicking of 2025 with an unforgettable 17 January homecoming concert at Columbus' 20,000-seat Schottenstein Center. Serving up impassioned renditions of hits from their wildly popular Surface tour, plus some new material, Beartooth swept fans up in their high energy performance.

Immersing the crowd deeper into this experience was a potent lighting and production design from Squeek Lights. Victor Zeiser, Ben Jarrett and the Squeek team relied on the punching and colour rendering power of 119 Chauvet Professional fixtures to create their compelling panorama.

Drawn from Squeek Lights' own inventory, these fixtures included 22 Color Strike M motorised strobe-washes, and equal number of Maverick Storm 4 Profiles, along with 18 Maverick Storm 1 Hybrids, 18 Storm 2 BeamWashes, 24 STRIKE Array blinders and 15 COLORado PXL Bar 16 battens. Also lending a special aura to the show was the engaging video content design by band Luke Shomo (brother of Beartooth frontman Caleb Shomo), which was run live by Drew Mercadante of Supervoid Productions.

"Victor and Caleb have been dreaming about designing a large arena show for Beartooth for as long as they've been working together," said Jarrett. "So, when Caleb told Victor it was finally happening, the directive was clear: we wanted to go as big as possible, to create a really special hometown show to cap off a very big and successful 2024 touring season for the band."

Setting the stage for this special show was a massive (60ft wide by 16.5ft high) upstage blow through video wall, along with (26ft W by 13ft H) DS video banner sides and a (60ft W by 13ft H) DS video banner centre.

"We wanted a big wall with enough transparency to let light shoot through it, while also still looking like a solid video wall when there was nothing behind it," said Jarrett. "It was also important for us to get lighting between the upstage video wall and the downstage header walls. It can be very challenging to get light through such a big video element, which is why we selected the Storm 1 Hybrid and Storm 2 BeamWash. Besides having an intense output, they have that super narrow beam action which will cut through any video screen."

The big video wall was artfully used throughout the 18-song set to change the aura on stage. At times, the wall seemed to disappear, before returning to present a very large single image that enveloped the entire stage. At other times, the wall content was divided into different images. As for the content itself, it presented an endlessly fascinating and evolving storyline that included real images and abstract patterns, all of which stirred emotions without distracting form the performance of the band on stage.

"Luke was very dialled into the music and what his brother Caleb was looking for," said Jarrett. "This made the imagery meaningful in the way it related to the music. A lot of credit also goes to Drew Mercadante for running the live video and playback to the DS video banner walls. We all worked together closely to make sure our colours for each song matched or complement each other."

Playing a role in making this seamless coordination between lighting and video content was the Squeek team's skilful fixture placement. They flew 12 Maverick Storm 4 Profiles as side lighting and relied on the remaining ten units to line the upstage floor. The Maverick Storm 2 Hybrids and BeamWashes made up the bulk of the overhead rig and were spread across two 48-foot truss structures, while PXL batten were arranged on the floor to line the stage.

Singling out the Maverick Storm 4 Profile, Jarrett, called it a "beast" of a fixture. "The incredible zoom range and brightness in saturated colours were vital to my big crowd blinding moments in this show," he said, noting that this was the largest show Squeek Lights has ever designed. It was also the largest headline show to date for Beartooth.

Based on what was on display in Columbus on this cold Friday night in January, bigger things for both the band and its lighting design team will be happening in the future.

Squeek Lights Creates Big Beartooth Homecoming with Chauvet ProfessionalSqueek Lights Creates Big Beartooth Homecoming with Chauvet Professional

7th February 2025

Claypaky Sharpy X Frames Shine at First World Taekwondo Virtual Championships in Singapore

Claypaky Sharpy X Frames Shine at First World Taekwondo Virtual Championships in Singapore
Claypaky Sharpy X Frames Shine at First World Taekwondo Virtual Championships in Singapore

Singapore – Claypaky Sharpy X Frame hybrid luminaires illuminated the inaugural 2024 World Taekwondo Virtual Championships in Singapore where more than 120 athletes from 23 countries participated in the first-ever event of its kind. The competition took place at the Singapore Sports Hub OCBC Arena 1, 16-17 November.  The event marked the return of the sport to Singapore after the city successfully hosted the first Olympic Esports Week in June 2023, where Virtual Taekwondo made its debut. Virtual Taekwondo uses a motion tracking system and virtual reality headset in matches of non-contact sparring.

Lighting designer Michael Chan of Singapore-based Lighting Insomnia selected 36 Sharpy X Frames for the landmark event. Chan has worked on a wide range of arts, entertainment and installation projects. His experience ranges from consulting on installations and major events to designing and programming for 3D visualisation, musicals, concerts, special events, galleries, exhibitions and architainment.

For the World Virtual Taekwondo Championships, it was his goal “to create an exciting opening ceremony, while providing sufficient face light for the field of play. The idea was to maximise the number of fixtures we had and to make the lighting rig look bigger and more imposing than it actually was. To achieve that, we had six slanted trusses at varying heights and fitted them with 36 Sharpy X Frames to occupy more of the vertical spaces above the field of play and in the FOH.”

Chan chose the fixtures because they are “bright, punchy and have great versatility and responsiveness: a real Swiss army knife type of fixture. The fact that they are so punchy in beam mode and yet can be instantly converted to a large profile fixture with framing was key to their selection.”

He was very pleased with the Sharpy X Frames, which he says “performed fantastically well. They did everything I asked of them and the support from Claypaky was great.”

Rental house MediaPix Pte Ltd supplied the fixtures.  Haikal served as the lighting operator for the event.  Acoustic and Lighting Singapore is Claypaky’s distributor in the region.

www.claypaky.com 

7th February 2025

Claypaky

Lighting Jedermann in Salzburg

Lighting Jedermann in Salzburg
Lighting Jedermann in Salzburg

Austria – Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Medieval morality play Jedermann has become a legendary and classic centrepiece of the world-renowned Salzburg Festival. First performed in 1920 and directed by Max Reinhardt when the festival was inaugurated, it has been staged most years since then in the city’s magnificent Domplatz (Cathedral Square).

2024 saw the staging of a new, fresh, contemporary and hugely acclaimed version created by Canadian director Robert Carsen, a master of stagecraft and innovative thinking – who was also the scenographer – and costume designer Luis Carvalho. Lighting was designed by Carsen and Giuseppe di Iorio, with the latter specifying Robe iFORTE LTXs to deal with all the essential keylighting needed to bring the work alive and disrupt preconceptions about how the play can be presented.

Jedermann was performed nightly throughout the five-week 2014 event, either in Cathedral Square, or in case of inclement weather (a decision made each day up to three hours before the start of the show) in the Grosses Festspielhaus.

Giuseppe, an Italian LD based in Lisbon and lighting many opera productions, has collaborated on several previous projects with Carsen. He was super excited to be asked to light this versatile and cutting-edge production, specifying the16 Robe iFORTE LTXs which were supplied by Bari, Italian rental company Lucidiscena.

Lucidiscena in turn invested in the fixtures especially for this work, purchasing from Robe’s Italian distributor, RM Multimedia. The company’s CEO Pino Loconsole was equally stoked to be involved as the lighting supplier for such a high-impact project.

Lucidiscena was working directly for producer Moritz Hauthaler. The show’s technical director was Andreas Zechner and the head of lighting for the festival was Hubert Schwaiger, and thanks to “their excitement and commitment to our vision, Robert and I were able to deliver the show using these fantastic new Robe fixtures,” commented Giuseppe.

Giuseppe was acutely aware that he “needed exactly the right tools,” which meant bright keys with a high CRI to deliver to the expected quality and get those beautiful, sumptuous, natural flesh tones. Being outdoors during the European summer, IP rated fixtures were, naturally, a ‘no-brainer’!

Ahead of the production, he met with Pino (the two have also worked together for some time) and the team from RM Multimedia and looked at the newest moving lights available from Robe and decided that the iFORTE LTX was exactly what he needed.

A long throw was essential, the lights needed to focus in on a mirror ball at one stage, so Giuseppe was impressed with the zoom and the fact that the luminaire is hugely powerful whatever the zoom angle.

Robert’s scenic design provided one starting point for the lighting, together with the site itself which, due to the layout, had certain preordained lighting rigging points plus other challenges like PA arrays obstructing several of these in the higher up positions.

To circumvent this, Giuseppe created two new steeper angled lighting positions either side of the stage for iFORTES which maximised coverage of the entire stage area and more iFORTES were concentrated on the upper tribune positions at FOH.

He notes that they mixed well combined with other lights rigged on the original flatter angled towers, all of which assisted in evoking the very specific cinematic ambience that Robert wanted to achieve for the work.

As the festival this year also coincided with the summer Olympics in Paris, sourcing certain pieces of kit was quite challenging, so while ideally Giuseppe would have liked to use more Robe fixtures than these 16 iFORTES, he had to include others on the plot as he also had to light the cathedral façade and other elements around the audience area.

Most of the 50 or so fixtures were lifted to the roof positions with the assistance of a crane.

Giuseppe has previously used the standard FORTES and ESPRITES, and the ESPRITE is one of his go-to fixtures for indoor projects. He likes the CMY mixing as the power of the white source LED is optimised and the skin tones look rich and naturalistic while the costumes really pop.

He noted that there is always a mix of skin colours on the Salzburg chorus, and with up to almost 90 people on stage at times, it’s essential to have a “nice clean full spectrum light source like the iFORTE LTX where the tones remain constant at different intensities.”

He generally prefers lighting with more minimalist and through-through designs, where fixtures can be multi-functional and there is the opportunity to really drill down into the detail and finesse of the art.

He describes this style of lighting as ‘hybrid’, taking techniques from rock & roll for the earlier parts of the play, gradually ramping up to be more theatrical and operatic in the final scenes. “Having that identical quality of light from the LTXs was invaluable in building this treatment,” he stated, “the light can be soft and understated when it needs to be, but then always deliver that extreme power when needed”.

All the lighting was programmed on site during ten designated focus sessions and some inevitable interruptions due to rain! In case of rain, the show also had to be rigged and rehearsed for the 500-capacity indoor venue as well, adding to the logistics and the pressure during the rehearsal and tech periods.

After press night, the outdoor show lighting was run by operators from the festival crew.

Giuseppe is highly selective about the fixtures he uses, and Robe is a regular brand on his specs. He thinks the BMFL is a great fixture and Spiiders are another workhorse. He was one of those influencing the purchase of Spiiders by the Copenhagen Royal Ballet for some of their FOH positions after a production of Raymonda at the Royal Danish Ballet, directed by Nikolaj Hubbe which was revived this summer.

Pino Loconsole is also passionate about lights and puts much thought and research into his investments. He was delighted to win the pitch to provide lights for Jedermann at the 2024 Salzburg festival and it was a great pleasure to be working with Giuseppe again.

“We needed a profile luminaire that could punch in from the front about 60/70 metres from the stage and when I saw the iFORTE LTX, I immediately knew it would be the perfect solution for this job, so I proposed Giuseppe also looked at them, and he agreed.”

Pino immediately ordered the first 16 units and shortly after bought more, bringing Lucidiscena’s current iFORTE LTX inventory to 40.

“I think it is a fantastic fixture,” he states, “very powerful, with high quality colour and graphics. Currently it is the best high power profile luminaire on the market, that’s why I decided to buy more. I’m sure they will not be the last either because the requests for them keep coming in and increasing every day!”

This is a great testament to the success iFORTE LTX is enjoying all around the world.

photos: Monika Rittershaus

Lighting Jedermann in SalzburgLighting Jedermann in Salzburg

6th February 2025

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder Christmas Shines with Bandit Lites

USA – Country Music Hall of Fame member and 15-time Grammy winner Ricky Skaggs spent December sharing the gift of bluegrass on the Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder Christmas holiday show. Bandit Lites provided the lighting for the acoustic style concert that included beloved classic songs as well as hit original songs.

Bandit Lites lighting designer and project manager Craig Richter designed the system to wrap around the stage, laying it in an arch and stringing festoon fixtures between the pipe and base fixtures.

“I chose to go with fixtures that would not blind the audience and would give a nice look on stage even when they are not on and the Portman P2 EVO was the perfect fixture for that,” said Richter. “I added Robe Halos to help compliment the P2 EVO’s as well as give the lighting director a fun fixture to do some pixel effects with.”

Bandit Lites supplied Elation Proteus Rayzor 760 IP 65, Martin MAC Viper Profiles, Robe Halo LEDs, ROBE Patt 2017 and Chauvet LED festoons.

“After putting together some general ideas, we turned Craig loose to whip up a great lighting package that not only looks amazing and blends perfectly with Ricky’s show, but also travels well,” said Bandit Lites client representative Allen Deneau. “Craig did an amazing job with the design and getting it prepped with the Bandit team.”

“I give a lot of credit to Jacob Carson for making the design come to life,” finished Richter. “He handled all the programming and operation for this tour, he did a great job and made some beautiful looks. He was able to utilise all the features of the fixtures the way I would have if I was still touring.”

“Bandit Lites is a great lighting company to work with,” said Skaggs. “They have years of experience, so they know what they are doing. The company has worked with us for the last two years on our Christmas shows. They always have a great design at a great price that is just what we need. Easy load in, set up and load out. One man job. Easy peasy! We will use Bandit Lites again and again. Great folks to work with.”

“Allen Deneau has been a pleasure to work with,” said Charlotte Scott, general manager at RS Entertainment and Skaggs Family Records. “From the first call, he realised our vision for the Christmas tour and made sure we had what we needed to help bring the spirit of Christmas to each and every show on the tour. The complete team at Bandit Lites is top notch and very professional. We look forward to working with them for many years to come."

“Working with Charlotte, Ricky and the team each year is something I always look forward to doing,” finished Deneau. “It is a lot of fun blending lighting with bluegrass and Christmas. Jacob made the lighting look incredible, and it really captured the essence of Ricky’s show. I couldn’t be happier with the end results. I’m already looking forward to Christmas 2025 with Ricky Skaggs.”

6th February 2025

tube uk rises to the occasion for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture Opening Event

tube uk rises to the occasion for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture Opening Event
tube uk rises to the occasion for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture Opening Event

UK – A team of engineers from audio specialist tube uk worked through freezing temperatures, icy winds and snow to deliver sound systems for the two key areas of Bradford’s spectacular and highly acclaimed UK City of Culture Opening Event, staged in City Park.

The show, RISE, was created by award-winning director Kirsty Housley and Bradford-born magician Steven Frayne (formerly known as Dynamo), with a cast of around 200 including poets, rappers, aerialists, dancers, an orchestra, community choirs and more. Attended by 20,000 spectators over two fully sold-out nights, it kicked off Bradford’s year as the UK’s Capital of Culture with style and characteristic grittiness.

tube uk’s work was system designed and project managed by Melvyn Coote. The Manchester-based company was working directly for Bradford 2025 under the direction of the production and technical management of Thomas Reilly and Jacob Gough from Deryncoch Ltd, with oversight of Shanaz Gulzar, Bradford 2025’s creative director and Ben Pugh, director of production for Bradford 2025.

tube submitted its tender for the work and were successful in part due to their extensive experience in working on these kinds of shows, including Hull’s year as UK City of Culture in 2017. Once confirmed, Melvyn and the crew worked closely with Olivier and Tony Award-winning sound designer Gareth Fry – a legend of the craft especially in theatre circles – to implement all things sonic.

“It was a fantastic opportunity to work with someone of Gareth’s calibre and experience,” commented Melvyn. “The results were also a great tribute to the commitment and determination of all our crew who made it happen in the harshest and toughest environmental conditions.”

The first challenges included designing and building everything needed during December, a short month where everyone tends to slide into Christmas after a certain point, so they had to be 99% prepped for it before then!

On site, the opening event ‘vista’ spanned several hundred metres and included LED screens and two 15-metre-high special scaffolding structures on which aerialists performed and across which large scale projections were beamed. A large community choir was positioned on the steps of the Magistrates Court, poets performed in the midst of the audience, as well as on the roof of Bradford’s 19th century town hall.

Behind this main area to the right was the One City building, a five-storey glass windowed office block. On the third level, Airedale Symphony Orchestra performed and all their sounds were fed into the main PA and their images to the LED screens.

tube’s mission – working with Gareth’s direction – was to design a PA system to cover the whole area with great sounding audio, which was achieved using five ground stacks of d&b V-Series, all sitting on PA risers, each with six d&b V8 tops, two V-SUBS and one KSL sub.

These stacks were positioned to work together as a unified system and also separately, so different areas along vista sightlines could also be localised sonically, pulling focus of the sound image as needed to where the action was as the show unfolded.

This was powered by d&b D80 amps.

While the input side was relatively straightforward, outputs were a lot more complex. A major challenge was managing the numerous feeds that the different performers (poets, rappers, orchestra, aerialists, DJ, community performers etc,) needed at various times, resulting in 63 outputs running concurrently, distributed site-wide via a Dante network utilising multi-fibre and Cat 5 multicore systems.

The Dante and control networks were distributed to six node points extending over 350 metres of infrastructure cabling.

To the left of the main show vista in Centenary Gardens was a large entry and concession area which was also central to the event.

The audio requirement here was for a background style sound system to relay the show and this was achieved via nine carefully chosen PA positions around the food trucks, created using a combination of 12 Y7P point source speakers with different combinations of Y and V-SUBS, all powered by four D20 amps.

All the show’s audio sources were controlled via QLab running off two Mac Studio machines for full redundancy, with d&b R1 system control.

Monitoring included a pair of d&b Y10s for the choir and six M4 speakers for the two aerial performance towers, four d&b E8s for the orchestra and two M6s for the DJ. tube also supplied the DJ kit in the form of a Pioneer DJ900 NXS2 mixer and CDJ3000 decks.

Press feeds were sent to seven different locations and additional feeds were provided for captioning and BSL signers.

Along with monitoring, talkback was a major element of this event, and tube was also asked to deliver site-wide show comms as a separate tender to the PA.

They proposed a Green-Go / Riedel Bolero combination integrating both wired and wireless comms, the mix was necessary due to the amount of movement between the different areas.

The Green-Go was used for the fixed comms stations and Bolero for the mobile ones, amounting to 20 ways of Green-Go and 24 of Bolero, a total of 44 people on comms to run the shows, which was a challenge in itself!

Most of the comms action was also outdoors, but the system also included indoors comms for the orchestra, DJ and musicians in the One City building, all of which needed to seamlessly transmit between the two protocols, making the task infinitely more intricate.

“We definitely pushed the envelope in the comms universe,” notes Melvyn, all of which was co-ordinated and tech’d on site by tube’s comms wrangler, Adam Taylor.

John Redfern was crew chief and head of audio on site, Rob Parkinson was the FOH operator and Tracy Harper co-ordinated all the radio mics.

The RF systems included 12 ways of Sennheiser 5000 series belt packs and hand-helds and 12 ways of Sennheiser 2000 IEMs running off six monitor feeds.

The FM transmission for community participants and general foldback consumed another 50 belt packs and there were also four wired IEM feeds.

Matt Waltho was head PA technician, and Melvyn together with Harry Park were assistant rig technicians.

“I can’t say enough great things about the teamwork from all departments,” stated Melvyn, “Especially in the terrible weather; this was not a gig for the fainthearted and it proved to be a truly collaborative and galvanising experience for all of us, one that brought amazing results!”

tube uk’s efforts were proudly part of the broader teamwork that delivered a unique, outstanding and highly successful opening event for Bradford 2025, a show featuring all the rawness, honesty and diversity of the city and district, that looks ahead to a busy year of fun, art and culture experiences designed to showcase its rich history and spotlight its dynamic contemporary culture, helping to have a lifelong impact.

photos: Ian Hodgson, Dave Levene and courtesy tube uk

tube uk rises to the occasion for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture Opening Eventtube uk rises to the occasion for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture Opening Event

5th February 2025

Giovanni Ricciardi Works Future Magic at Kappa FuturFestival with 100 Chauvet Professional Fixtures from ZaLight

Giovanni Ricciardi Works Future Magic at Kappa FuturFestival with 100 Chauvet Professional Fixtures from ZaLight
Giovanni Ricciardi Works Future Magic at Kappa FuturFestival with 100 Chauvet Professional Fixtures from ZaLight

Italy – Welcome to the Future! The banners over the entrances to the Kappa FuturFestival trumpet this message as they welcome visitors to Italy's largest EDM event. Those who take this bold greeting to heart aren't likely to be disappointed when they enter the festival's site at Parco Dora, an evocative urban park where metal pylons, rather than trees, mark many paths.

Rising out of the ruins of an abandoned Fiat and Michelin manufacturing complex, the 456,000  square metre park exudes a stark and hauntingly moving aura with concrete towers and 30-metre high metal beams dotting its grounds. Wandering through the park, one can feel that one is moving through time, travelling from a dystopian post-industrial past into the future.

But exactly what sort of future? For the 85,000 or so who attended the most recent Kappa FuturFestival, the answer is one filled with powerful, forward-looking, provocative and mind-expanding music performed by many of the world's leading EDM artists, including Tale of Us, Skrillex, Tiësto and Carl Cox.

Accenting that music with a bold, futuristic lighting design that incorporated the gripping architectural elements of Parco Dora was Giovanni Ricciardi, who described the process this way: "This year, in addition to taking care of the lighting part of all the stages of the Kappa FuturFestival, I took care, together with Andrea Moi, of the adaptations of some creative drafts for some of them. That is to say, we transformed some internal 'ideas' into reality."

Helping Ricciardi achieve his vision at the festival were 50 COLORado PXL Curve 12 and 50 COLORado PXL Bar 16 fixtures supplied by ZaLight with services by STS Communication. The motorised tilting battens were used to create transformative, geometric effects on the Voyager stage, which featured the likes of Carl Cox, Four Tet and the Martinez Brothers.

"The birth of the Voyager stage marked the beginning of a very special relationship with Afterlife and created the conditions for a deep connection to be established between the crew of Anyma and Kappa FuturFestival," said Ricciardi. "The natural evolution of this dialogue was the creation of a space that took into account the needs of their show.

"Pascal (Bach, Anyma's lighting designer) and I looked for the right machines to bring to the stage that feeling of "solid" and punchy line that characterises their sets," continued Ricciardi. "We were seeking an outdoor batten fixture that could let us accomplish this goal. The PXL Bar 16 and PXL Curve 12 immediately seemed like a perfect choice. With the PXL Bar 16, the imposing double line at the base of the monolith (the giant LED wall in the centre of the Voyager stage) was built, also the high line at the head and the lines on the PA towers."

The Kappa FuturFestival marked the first time that the PXL Curve 12 was used in a major live event in Italy. For the festival, they were mainly mapped using MadMapper; the PXL Curve 12 were also used in merges from the bench for tilt effects.

"To describe the characteristics of the two projectors that have been most useful to me, I start with the ‘trivial’ benefits: first of all, they are both IP65, and not having to worry about the weather is one of the greatest blessings for us in the trade," said Ricciardi. "Then, the PXL Bar 16 is a fast and versatile machine. Its wide zoom makes it useful both when there is a need for punch as a blade and when there is a need to colour surfaces. We used four of the units to colour the steel columns next to the stage. So, the PXL Curve 12, in addition to being IP65, are extremely special fixture, given its separate tilt conformation and the volumetric effects that can be obtained are crazy!"

The Kappa FuturFestival offered fans an opportunity to look into the future of EDM music and production. For Giovanni Ricciardi and his team, it also provides a glimpse into what lay ahead in lighting tools and that future was indeed very, very bright.

Giovanni Ricciardi Works Future Magic at Kappa FuturFestival with 100 Chauvet Professional Fixtures from ZaLightGiovanni Ricciardi Works Future Magic at Kappa FuturFestival with 100 Chauvet Professional Fixtures from ZaLight

5th February 2025

HALO Invests in Robe PAINTES

HALO Invests in Robe PAINTES

UK – Leading London-based event production company Halo has added 24 Robe PAINTE moving lights to its rental inventory, which were delivered in September following the PLASA professional lighting and sound expo by the team at Robe UK.

These are added to Halo’s existing lighting rental inventory, which already includes several other Robe moving lights: Pointes, MegaPointes, Spikies, Spikie+s, Spiiders and LEDBeam 150s, all of which have been purchased in the last six years.

Halo’s CEO Yann Guenancia and his team including hire manager Andrew Luck made the decision after considering various options and receiving a demo of the PAINTE fixtures at Halo.

Yann stated: “We needed a premium ‘LED spot’ and a compact hard-edged luminaire to add to our inventory and, having enjoyed so much success with Robe’s Pointe and Spiider fixtures, we concluded that PAINTE would be a perfect complement.”

Key PAINTE features impressing everyone included the small size, excellent brightness, elegant dimming curves and low noise. Many of the events that Halo services include noise sensitive environments like conferences, product launches and presentations, where the ambient noise needs to be minimised.

They also believe that Robe’s ground-breaking TE (Transferable Engine) technology is an asset for any rental company.

This allows the easy and straightforward replacement (in about six minutes) of the LED light source, which can also be swapped out for an alternative LED engine with different characteristics appropriate to the application. It is a highly flexible and sustainable option that increases the lifespan of the fixture.

The PAINTE’s user-friendly touch screen navigation was another winner with the Halo crew. It’s designed to allow full access to all the setup functions and make running diagnostics very straightforward.

Halo’s new fixtures went straight to work on several events including the 2024 Kite Festival staged at London’s famous Abbey Road Studios, an event uniting an exciting and provocative collection of thinkers and performers for two days and nights of music, ideas and inspiring conversations.

Halo's production manager for the event, Tom Canning, noted that it was the first large production project for the new PAINTES, which were gigged in Abbey Road’s iconic Studio 2, used to illuminate the walls and ceilings. “The gobos are great and having the PAINTES on the rigs offered us plenty of creative scope over the long weekend," he commented.

The event’s lighting also included Robe Pointes and PATT 2013s.

The PAINTES have been used for multiple other Halo supplied events and productions like the Music Photography Awards, also at Abbey Road Studios, the movie premiere of Salem’s Lot at London’s Regent Street Cinema and for Soho House White City’s Halloween celebrations.

Everyone at Halo is delighted with the purchase.

Yann thinks Robe is “one of the best moving light brands on the market, offering excellent build quality, durability and longevity.” He notes that they are also supplied in well-designed flight cases and recognised as an industry standard with which everyone is happy to work.

photos: courtesy Halo

HALO Invests in Robe PAINTESHALO Invests in Robe PAINTES

4th February 2025

Chauvet Professional Helps Nate Haber Invoke Power of Darkness for Imminence

Chauvet Professional Helps Nate Haber Invoke Power of Darkness for Imminence
Chauvet Professional Helps Nate Haber Invoke Power of Darkness for Imminence

USA – Pushing their musical genre to new limits with their unique classical string arrangements that blend with ferocious guitar riffs and growling vocals, Imminence has been a magnet for metal fans. Small wonder, their recent 20-city tour sold out quickly.

Fans who flocked to see the quintet from Trelleborg, Sweden weren’t disappointed, as the band roared through each song with unbridled passion. However, even as they became more immersed in the show, members of the audience didn’t always get to ‘see’ band members, at least not in the literal sense. They didn’t mind, though, the evocative dark space created by the band’s LD Nate Haber made it easier for them to dive deeper into the visionary sound that has made this band so popular.

Capturing the mood of the music in the aptly named “The Black Tour,” Haber sometimes kept the entire stage black. At other times, he cast long shadows from his side lighting over much of the stage and presented the musicians as darkened or monochromatically covered silhouettes.

“Darkness is a pretty big element of the show. The programming of the performance is really where the role of darkness is applied,” said Haber. “Many times, during the show we simply turn everything off and leave the audience in pitch black. For example, many of the songs have instrumental interludes and my thinking is that by totally removing the audience's ability to see it will heighten their sense of hearing and make those auditory things more impactful.

“We also use very little frontlight,” he continued. “Really, almost no frontlight. An example of the kind of effect we were after is during the violin solo by our lead singer Eddie Berg. We use one side fill to create an effect where it looks like his upper body is appearing from a complete blanket of darkness. The whole stage is dark. All you can see is his head and violin and the side lighting creates extremely dramatic shadows.”

Helping Haber accent the darkness is a collection of 18 Chauvet Professional Color Strike M moving fixtures. Describing the high output motorised strobe-washes as “the main workhorse of the show,” he relied on them as his principal light source and as a tool for shaping dark space.

“We had the Color Strike Ms around the drum and keyboard riser behind the windows, facing the audience,” noted Haber. “When I could manage it, I liked to have some flown in the air as well. We basically covered the stage in Strike Ms. Definitely my favourite fixture of that type.”

Haber combined dark space with ambers and a variety of monochromatic palettes, most notable teal. “We actually used teal more than anything,” he said. “We were going for a cinematic, theatrical look. Our goal was to recreate a vibe that was similar to what was in the band’s music videos.” 

Haber also made good use of low-lying fog on the tour and looks forward to incorporating this effect in the future. “We have a new headlining tour in the spring,” he said. “I think we will have some new fog and props to add to that show.”

When that happens those new design elements will be sure to have a powerful effect on audiences, especially when they’re cast in the evocative dark space and shadows created by this inspired designer. 

Chauvet Professional Helps Nate Haber Invoke Power of Darkness for ImminenceChauvet Professional Helps Nate Haber Invoke Power of Darkness for Imminence

4th February 2025

Ayrton Kyalami beams on Swedish Idol

Ayrton Kyalami beams on Swedish Idol
Ayrton Kyalami beams on Swedish Idol

Sweden – Launched in 2004 and part of a global franchise, Swedish Idol is one of the most popular shows on Swedish television. Broadcast live on channel TV4, it provides a glittering platform on which hopeful Swedish singing stars can showcase their talents and compete to gain widespread recognition.

The latest series of live performances ran from 12 October to 7 December at the Filadelfia Convention Center in central Stockholm and was lit by lighting designer, Linus Pansell, who included Ayrton Kyalami, Rivale Profile and MagicBlade FX fixtures in his rig.

“The Kyalamis and MagicBlades were crucial for me to build the show,” says Pansell. “I’m usually quite negotiable to changing fixtures to fit the suppliers’ inventories, but this time I really wanted these specific fixtures. I could easily swap out other lights in the rig, but I was very specific about Kyalami and MagicBlade.”

The major part of the Swedish Idol set was a large LED wall, “so beams were the only good option to get lights around the performers,” says Pansell. “I wanted the Kyalamis because of their very sharp beam and vivid colours, which I needed to punch through the brightness of that LED wall. I also really like the form factor of the Kyalami which is very pretty and not like a conventional yoke fixture. As, these fixtures were on the floor and silhouetted by the screen, the look of the unit was really important too.”

Pansell floor-mounted 24 Kyalami units on Wahlberg poles and rigged 18 Rivale Profile overhead. Thirty-six MagicBlade FX were rigged in a grid wall behind the screen (‘as narrow as possible’) from where Pansell used them for zoomed out flare effects as well as blade looks. “I really like the endless pan and tilt/spin function on the MagicBlades and the fact that I can make different shapes for different songs. We light about 130 songs each season so it’s really important to have a good toolbox to make new shapes and identities. There are alternatives among other brands but the MagicBlade FX has a centre pixel which was important to me. For example, I can pan-spin the fixture endlessly with only the centre pixel lit for a static look and then flash the other pixels to very quickly change from a static to a moving look; the viewer can’t really understand what’s going on and I love that!”

Compact, lightweight fixtures are an important requirement for the Filadelfia Convention Center, which was one reason why Pansell chose Rivale Profile. “Initially the Rivale Profile was not a key product for me, but I was really impressed by its output and also with the amount of output still achievable using colours. It’s very nice to have all that power, colour and functionality with in a small, light fixture.”

Soundforce, one of the largest rental and production companies in Sweden, supplied the Ayrton fixtures: the Rivale Profiles from their own rental inventory and the Kyalami and MagicBlade FX subrented from Hyrljudet of Goteborg.

“We had been looking for a small, fast, narrow beam fixture with CMY colour mixing,” says Hyrljudet’s Kristoffer Janssons who had recently made the investment into Kyalami and MagicBlade FX. “When Kyalami was first released, we had high expectations and when we first saw it in action, we didn’t need to look any further. We are very happy with our investment and we will add more units in the near future."

Ayrton is distributed exclusively in Sweden by Topstage.

photos:© Nina Varuna and © Linus Pansell

Ayrton Kyalami beams on Swedish IdolAyrton Kyalami beams on Swedish Idol

4th February 2025

In love with Spectera: New in-ear experience for Joy Denalane and Max Herre

In love with Spectera: New in-ear experience for Joy Denalane and Max Herre

Germany – Sound is like love: there are highs and lows. Soul singer Joy Denalane and rapper Max Herre explore their very personal 25-year relationship on their first duet album, ‘Alles Liebe’ (All Love/Lots of love), which they took on tour in November and December 2024. Also on board was their long-time monitor engineer Toni Kern, who used Sennheiser’s Spectera as a monitor system, giving everyone involved an entirely new in-ear monitoring feel.

Toni Kern first encountered a WMAS system around two years ago. Spectera product manager, Bernd Neubauer, had asked his long-time friend if he would carry out a MADI measurement with a prototype system during a production. Kern agreed and his interest in the new transmission technology was piqued. He visited the Spectera development team to learn more and provide feedback and, at a Sennheiser Sound Experts event, got a taste of what he now calls “a gamechanger, a revolution”: a bidirectional wireless ecosystem that transmits and receives audio and control data on a wideband RF carrier. “Everyone at the event agreed that Spectera takes sound quality to a new level and makes frequency management much easier,” says Kern.

When Kern was approached for Max&Joy’s ‘Alles Liebe’ tour in 2024, he got back to Neubauer to ask if he could take a Spectera system with him. Neubauer was delighted and supplied 26 Spectera SEK bodypacks, three Spectera DAD antennas, and a Spectera Base Station, which provided Denalane, Herre, their band and the backstage crew with a new in-ear experience.

“I don’t want to just hand the artists devices they don’t know. First, I want to explain the equipment to them technically. Everyone was curious about the new system, tried it out intuitively and was quickly impressed,” says Kern. After a week of rehearsals in Berlin, the tour started. The question remained: Would there be real love under live conditions? And to what extent does Spectera change the workflow for the band and the technical team?

“I had between 20 and 24 belt packs in use, in addition to Max and Joy and the musicians, the tour manager, the production manager and guests also received a pack,” Kern explains. “The frequency planning was standard. I scanned the RF environment via a Spectera antenna, and it was no problem at all to find 8MHz for the wideband system.”

For his 14 IEM stereo mixes, Kern selected the ‘Live’ stereo mode from the 11 Spectera Audio Link Modes. This allowed him to provide not only the singers and the band, but also the backstage crew with the best sound and a low latency of just 1.6 milliseconds. “Sound quality is my top priority,” Kern notes. “If it’s not right, we don’t even need to talk about anything else.” Meanwhile, the audience was treated to gems from the large repertoire that the two exceptional artists Denalane and Herre have created after decades in the music business. In addition to the new duets about quarrelling, making up and universal values such as solidarity and friendship, the classic ‘Mit dir’ (‘With You’) is, of course, not to be missed; after all, the two fell in love during its production 25 years ago. The joint songs alternate with successful soul tracks from Denalane’s solo projects and Herre’s hip hop grooves from his Freundeskreis days. For these, the band takes a break and Herre performs together with a DJ. The in-ear sound seems to fit perfectly in all positions and arrangements: “When these top musicians consistently tell me that they are enthusiastic about the Spectera IEM, it carries a lot of weight for me,” says Kern.

Spectera easily connected with the other equipment in the workflow. “Spectera was phenomenally easy. I connected the MADI output of the 1U Base Station to the engine of the AVID S6L console with a BNC cable, that was it,” says Kern. Two Spectera DAD antennas were added, and a third was reserved specifically for scanning the RF spectrum. Kern also used two L 6000 charging stations to charge the bodypack batteries.

“As the Spectera system I was using was still a pre-production model, I had a classic Sennheiser in-ear system with me as a backup, but we didn’t need that at all. We used Spectera at every gig,” says Kern. “Everything worked perfectly together, whether narrowband or wideband, whether Sennheiser or other manufacturers.”

Kern is impressed with both the LinkDesk software and the Base Station’s browser-based control software: “Everything worked quickly, smoothly and without any problems in terms of channel assignment. I also liked the fact that members of the Sennheiser team came by in person to get feedback from me.”

Kern describes the ability to read, change and limit the monitoring volume as an ‘incredibly spectacular feature’. “It was unfamiliar to the artists at first, but everyone quickly got used to it and I could even change a setting during the show without them minding me doing that. As there was a great deal of trust between me as monitor engineer and the artists during this production, it was no problem at all.”

Instead of a volume control with a stop, the Spectera bodypack is equipped with an endless rotary control that ‘remembers’ its setting. In the control software, the volume can be limited to a safe range, thus taking some of the acoustic pressure off the artists.

“On stage, the adrenaline rush can quickly lead to extreme settings, and Spectera can produce really high audio levels, but nobody really needs it that loud,” explains Kern. “Now I have the opportunity to gently correct this.”

Kern’s opinion on Spectera is unequivocally positive: “The listening experience, especially for the musicians, is more relaxed over long periods. Your hearing isn’t as stressed, tired and damaged as it might be with other systems, and that has a positive impact on the performance.”

Max&Joy will also be touring this year: 18 open-air dates for ‘Alles Liebe’ are planned from 3 June 2025.

3rd February 2025

Roland Greil Harnesses Brutus Firepower For 2024 Arabian Gulf Cup Opening Ceremony

Roland Greil Harnesses Brutus Firepower For 2024 Arabian Gulf Cup Opening Ceremony
Roland Greil Harnesses Brutus Firepower For 2024 Arabian Gulf Cup Opening Ceremony

Kuwait – With decades of lighting experience, including expertise in designing for large-scale shows and spectaculars, lighting and production designer Roland Greil understands what it takes to create a lasting impact.

“When lighting a magnificent, 360-degree, theatrically produced stadium ceremony, where you’re dealing with throws of 50 to 100 metres or more, besides lighting the stage or field of play you also want to achieve some magic and theatrical spice and what you need there is firepower.”

For the Opening Ceremony of the Arabian Gulf Cup in Kuwait in December that firepower was provided by 173 Proteus Brutus LED wash/beam fixtures along with 49 Proteus Excalibur beam lights, both IP65-rated moving heads that Greil turns to when he needs reliability and exceptional output for challenging outdoor events.

Using 222 moving heads to light a major event stadium ceremony may sound like a substantial number, but compared to many similar opening ceremonies, the fixture counts for the Arabian Gulf Cup was more modest. For the Asian Cup Opening Ceremony in Qatar a year earlier for example, Greil had over three times as many moving heads at his disposal.

“There are not many lights on the market where you can realise such a large-scale stadium ceremony with such a small number of luminaires,” he said, referring to the Proteus Brutus.

“Considering that the stage was in the middle of a stadium without any possibility to rig lights above it or close to it and the field of play where all the action takes place is more than a third of the football pitch, usually you achieve the firepower you need by having 800, 1000, or even 2000 lights. Thanks to the Brutus, it gave us the firepower to do it with a smaller number of lights. One Brutus substitutes easily two other lights.”

The Proteus Brutus is a 75000-lumen-strong wash/beam FX fixture housing a 1200W peak field LED engine. Optimised for long-throw efficiency, it houses a complete FX package, and CMY colour mixing with variable CTO makes it possible to hone in on a particular shade when needed. A 4.5° to 45° zoom allows it to wash a flood of colour or narrow to a tight beam that can cut through other layers of light.

With limited fixture types at his disposal, Greil emphasised focusing the Brutus on specific areas, using them more as spotlights than wash beams, which is why he employed them without the diffuser lens, resulting in a more focused beam and hard-edged light.

Greil was contacted by Balich Wonder Studio (BWS), executive producer of the show, to light the biennial football competition. BWS put together a beautiful theatrical masterpiece with creative direction by Federica Goffy. The ceremony, a theatrical piece in several acts, highlighted the beauty and history of Kuwait, as well as the connection between the Arabic states. With a look to the future, it merged traditional Gulf folk arts with modern technology and concluded with a lavish celebration as a kick-off to the tournament, which commenced immediately afterwards.

The challenge of the first match taking place on the same pitch directly after the ceremony (load out had to take place in five minutes) extremely limited lighting positions, the designer states. Given the restraints, Greil and his team were only able to make use of two lighting positions.

One position was the standard ground alignment around the perimeter of the pitch, where Brutus fixtures delivered sidelight and backlight from behind the signage boards with widely dispersed PROTEUS Excaliburs creating radiant beams and framing the entire look. The second position involved a circular array of trusses beneath the catwalk, equipped with Brutus fixtures not only for visual effects but also for keylighting, which was managed using an automated tracking system that Greil called a “saving grace” due to limited rehearsal time.

Greil’s lighting design not only had to work for the on-site audience at Jaber International Stadium, but it also had to work for the at-home audience as the ceremony was fully broadcast. The lighting also competed with full-on floor projection, drones in the air, and an elaborate fireworks display, other reasons why firepower was so important.

Lighting gear for the Arabian Gulf Cup Opening Ceremony was supplied by Creative Technology Middle East (CTME), who Greil said did an amazing job, as they also did on a show with him in Riyadh a few weeks earlier. “Great kit, great crew, and super service,” he said. “They’ve built an excellent lighting department from the ground up over the last few years and their kit is new. The kit is one thing, but they also have the right people who are wonderful to work with.”

photos: Luca Parisse

Roland Greil Harnesses Brutus Firepower For 2024 Arabian Gulf Cup Opening CeremonyRoland Greil Harnesses Brutus Firepower For 2024 Arabian Gulf Cup Opening Ceremony

3rd February 2025

Chauvet Professional Helps IPS Set Stage for Gladiator 2 Premiere

Chauvet Professional Helps IPS Set Stage for Gladiator 2 Premiere
Chauvet Professional Helps IPS Set Stage for Gladiator 2 Premiere

UK – Sometime around the start of the second century, in the spot where The Guildhall now stands, the Romans completed a coliseum which housed chariot racers and, yes, gladiators. On 13 November, a bit of this ancient grandeur (happily without actual gladiatorial combat) returned to London, as the city hosted the long-awaited premiere of Ridley Scott's Gladiator 2 at Leicester Square, complete with set pieces inspired by Roman architecture.

The setting, created by Limited Edition Event design, welcomed a glittering array of guests including the film's director and stars, along with none other than King Charles, himself. Contributing to the glamorous and festive tone of the event was a lighting design by Richard Godin that was run on a Chamsys MagicQ MQ250M desk, anchored by a mighty legion of Chauvet Professional LED video panels, all supplied by Milton Keynes-based IPS.

At the heart of the design were 132 REM 3IP LED screens that ran along the length of the Romanesque set pieces that flanked the red carpet area. Framed on either side by "Roman columns," the bright (4,500 NITS) indoor/outdoor panels displayed images from the film. Their DCI-P3 colour gamut made it possible to use a broader range of hues, while its 3.9mm pitch ensure crystal clear images.

"The Chauvet REM 3IP LED Screen in this project looked superb," said James Mason of IPS, who added that five OnAir IP panels were also used at the premiere, lighting the star-studded event's busy interview area. Other Chauvet Professional fixtures that helped make this global career shine included six Ovation Reve E-3 Profiles and 36 WELL Fit uplighters.

Like the film itself, the global premiere of Gladiator 2 enjoyed rave reviews on that November night. The 72nd Royal Film Performance by the charity in its 100-year history, the event not only raised money for a good cause, but it also provided all involved with what one news reporter called "a hot to trot" good time. Indeed, the premiere just might have been one of the more notable gladiatorial events to happen in London in about 19 centuries or so. 

Chauvet Professional Helps IPS Set Stage for Gladiator 2 PremiereChauvet Professional Helps IPS Set Stage for Gladiator 2 Premiere

31st January 2025