International News

TOKYO – The world-famous Nippon Budokan arena in central Tokyo played host to the Fumiya Fujii 30th Best Special Countdown Live on New Year’s Eve 2014. The show was the spectacular culmination of a two-year tour by popular Japanese music artist Fumiya Fujii, in celebration of his ‘double anniversary’ which marked 30 years since the recording of his debut album and his 20th year as a solo artist.

PARIS – The World Heritage Centre, UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris, was lit by Finnish lighting artist and designer Kari Kola who included 144 LED fixtures from SGM in the rig for the two nights of the Jan. 19-20, 2015 opening ceremony of the International Year of Light.

JÄMI, Finland – For this year’s three-day Finnish Cross-Country Ski Championship in Jämi, the organisers were looking for a special starting gate for the sprint day, to provide a rivetting visual appearance for the TV transmission.

LONDON – To mark the end of 2014’s F1 season Sky Sports created a unique film called The Ballad of the Dueling Drivers that told the story of the intense battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.  To enhance this special project, lighting director Richard Bowles chose also Clay Paky Mythos and Alpha Beam 700 fixtures to deliver sharp beams of light and other lighting effects throughout. Richard Martin Lighting provided the gear.

BRISTOL, U.K. – Enlightened Lighting, a Bristol, U.K.-based lighting company, recently added Showline SL eSTRIP 10 fixtures to its inventory. The strip-type fixtures are part of the Philips Showline eSeries product range.

LONDON – Bring Me The Horizon performed a big one off show in Dec. 2014 at Wembley Arena, wrapping up their 18-month world tour in support of their Sempiternal album cycle. The band’s LD, Ben Inskip, needed multi-purpose lights in the rig and chose 70 Robe moving lights for the show, which also served as a 10-year celebration for the band. The Robe fixtures included 39 LEDBeam 100s, 14 Pointes, 11 MMX Spots and six LEDWash 600s.

DUBAI, UAE – Luminex GigaCore 16RFO and BlackTrax tracking systems have been used to support entertainment productions, events, and award shows around the world. A recent case in point was a government awards show in Dubai.

MUNICH, Germany – Acrobatic performances and the play of light and shadows are the ingredients for the tour of Shadowland – a performance piece from the Connecticut-based dance company Piobolus. With their bodies, the performers create shadow silhouettes including those of elephants, faces, buildings and cars. Assisting with this shadow play are several ETC Source Four incandescent fixtures, as well as Gio and Ion lighting control systems.

CZECH REPUBLIC – Robe is sponsoring the team of tennis players who will be representing the Czech Republic in the 2015 Fed Cup women’s tennis championships. Competition runs from Feb. through Nov. 2015; the finals are set for Nov. 14-15, 2015.

LONDON – For a recent concert at Alexandra Palace, LD Ed Warren’s design for genre-defying music act Metronomy made use of Clay Paky’s Stormy CC. Warren’s concept was to engage the audience with a disco atmosphere that included strobe-heavy moments and glitteringly vibrant looks.

SYDNEY, Australia – Sydney’s Luna Park has a new ride that raises you 50 meters above sea level for a bird’s eye view of the magical city before unceremoniously dropping you over 80 km’s an hour back to earth via an edge of your seat, white knuckle experience. Appropriately called the Hair Raiser, the ride has been lit in spectacular style acting as a beacon in the night sky.

LONDON – LD Nick Gray of Renegade Design included Clay Paky Sharpys and Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures in the rig for Kasbian’s U.K. arena tour. Bringing power, reliability and vibrant colour to the design Gray uses an array of , which he says these days never fail to feature in his rig. The tour recently visited major venues including Manchester Arena, Belfast Odyssey Arena and London’s O2 Brixton Academy. Neg Earth supplied the gear.