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Innibos 2015 Festival Includes Robe Fixtures

The main stage for the 2015 Innibos arts festival included Robe fixtures.

Innibos 2015 Festival Includes Robe Fixtures

NELSPRUIT, South Africa – The main stage for the 2015 Innibos arts festival – one of the largest Afrikaans events in South Africa drawing over 107,000 people over five days – staged at Hoërskool Bergvlam in Nelspruit, was lit for the eighth year by Pretoria, based LD Johan Ferriera. This year he chose to work with nearly 150 Robe moving lights, supplied to the event by Johannesburg based MGG, one of the country’s leading technical production specialists.

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Nook Schoenfeld

Shining in the Rain

It’s summertime in Mississippi. And to steal a quote, “it’s Africa hot.” So hot that rain is welcomed at this festival gig I’m lighting tonight. Except that my front lighting truss is exposed to the elements, and the rear truss is rigged off of the upstage roof edge, ensuring it will catch every drop of water that hits that canvas.

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The set features Buddhist simplicity rather then royal opulance. Photo by Paul Kolnik

Michael Yeargan, Scenic Designer for ‘The King and I’

When he designed the set for last year’s The Bridges Of Madison County, Tony Award winner Michael Yeargan fashioned a bridge out of pieces rolled on stage. With the current Tony Award-winning production of The King and I at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre, he has assembled four pairs of moving pillars to help create different room configurations for the King of Siam’s palace. The production co-stars Tony winner Kelli O’Hara as the English schoolteacher brought to teach the children of the proud King of Siam, and Ken Watanabe as the King, who learns life lessons from the schoolteacher as well.

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Luke Bryan 2015 tour photo by David Venus

Luke Bryan’s 2015 ‘Kick the Dust Up’ Tour

Country star Luke Bryan’s meteoric rise to the top has solidified his tour as one of the must-see shows of the summer. The singer has been selling out every show this year from arenas to sheds, special club gigs to humongous stadiums as evidenced by this weekend’s sold out gig at Nashville’s Vanderbilt stadium. Production designers Justin Kitchenman (touring LD) and Pete Healey (touring production manager) co-designed a large-scale system that can fit into any type venue. Through reconfigurations of where to rig the truss and video elements, these transitions between different sized venues are seamless, due to the design team doing their homework ahead of the tour.

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Train 2015 Picasso at the Wheel Tour photo by Steve Jennings

Train’s ‘Picasso at the Wheel’ Tour

At the age of 11 Brock Hogan attended his first concert, Def Leppard’s Hysteria tour. Ever since that moment, he knew he wanted to be involved in lighting. He began in the industry as a stagehand for a local production company in Boise ID. After several years of working every gig he possibly could and always asking questions, Hogan worked his way up from a pusher to lead rigger. In 2001 he began working at a local venue called The Big Easy Concert House (now The Knitting Factory). Within a year, he convinced them to let him learn lighting.

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Illuminate Production Services (IPS) owner Rick Franke and his son, Caleb, helped the church modernize its visual presentation to churchgoers.

Installations – Destiny Christian Church

Destiny Christian Church is a well-established parish with a number of ministries, classes and outreach programs providing for a congregation of over 3,000. A growing ministry located in Rocklin, CA, they sought to change their style of worship and their approach to the worship experience, with lighting as a key component. Rick Franke, owner of Illuminate Production Services (IPS) has been instrumental in this goal. Hailing from a family steeped in ministry, he himself served as a youth minister for 15 years. He tells a bit of his back-story.

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Greg Persinger and Vivid Illumination helped transform Indian Hills Community Church in Lincoln, NE.

A Talk with LD Greg Persinger

Greg Persinger found his calling as a church lighting designer by asking a simple question: Could he augment his touring rig with the church’s in-house moving lights? When the tech director he had posed that question to admitted that only one of his 40 fixtures worked, Persinger dug deeper into the reasons why. You could call it inspired intervention.

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LED video opens the door to entirely new forms of visual expression. Pictured here, Chauvet Professional’s PVP S7 LED panels from at the City Church of New Orleans.

LED Technologies – A New Dawn for Church Visuals

Advances in LED Technology Create New Opportunities to Engage Worshippers

Churches have long recognized that lighting can help engage their congregations in a number of different ways, from reflecting the varying moods of services to creating a more visually appealing presentation on stage. Adding new dynamic visual elements to their services will also help churches attract and keep the attention of younger people.

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Van Halen 2015 tour photo by Steve Jennings

Van Halen 2015 Tour

Eric Cathcart is out directing the 2015 Van Halen tour designed by Paul “Arlo” Guthrie. Back on stage are the Van Halen brothers, Alex on drums, Eddie on guitar with his son Wolfgang on bass and original lead singer David Lee Roth on vocals. The outdoor shed tour will head back to the West Coast where it started, ending the tour in the band’s hometown of Los Angeles in October with two nights at the Hollywood Bowl. Guthrie and Cathcart were in Los Angeles’ Sony Pictures Studios for about 10 days for rehearsals and programming, then moved everything to the first venue outside of Seattle for four days.

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Members of the DPS team hanging out in their Burbank warehouse. From left: Alan Sherin, Rob Kurtz, Jon Tunstall, R.J. Lynn, Anthony Dever, John Lee and Andrew ‘Hamish’ Mills.

DPS Inc. – Multi-faceted Production Company Rides Explosive Growth

I’m in an Audi riding over to the DPS warehouse from their HQ in Burbank along with GM Robert “R.J.” Lynn and the director of marketing, Alan Sherin. At a stop light, CEO/Creative Director Anthony Dever pulls up in his Tesla, rolls down his window and jokes, “Wanna race?” Lynn laughs and points out that maybe that’s not prudent, cop-wise. The light turns green and Dever hits the pedal, if only for a short spurt.

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