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Bon Jovi “Because We Can” World Tour

Bon Jovi Because We Can world tour photo by Steve Jennings

Bon Jovi “Because We Can” World Tour

At first glance, the design for the Bon Jovi Because We Can world tour looks extremely simple. When the show opens, there is no video screen, just a wide-open stage and not a lot of lights. On the surface, it seems that Performance Environment Designer Doug “Spike” Brant has taken a severely minimalistic design approach. Nothing could be further from the truth; however. Instead, the environment reveals itself, literally at the cue of the video. Building on their dynamic visuals for the last few Bon Jovi tours, Performance Environment Design Group (PEDG) and Spike Brant have taken advantage of a convergence of new technologies and a few innovative companies to realize their most ambitious design to date.

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Hilton's ONE Summit, supported by production partner Dodd Technologies

Hilton’s ONE Summit

Hilton Worldwide’s ONE: Full Service Summit Tradeshow, held from April 29 through May 1, 2013 at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, TX, brought together general managers and sales directors for three of Hilton’s full-service hotel brands — Hilton Hotels & Resorts, DoubleTree and Embassy Suites.

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Lindsey Stirling tour photo by Steve Jennings

Lindsey Stirling: Lighting Live Shows for an Internet Sensation

Lindsey Stirling, 26, combines violin performances with dance and performance art, with live shows picking up the momentum generated by her YouTube channel (lindseystomp.com) and her appearances during the 2010 season of America’s Got Talent as the “Hip Hop Violinist.” Along with hip hop, Stirling performs genres ranging from classical music to dubstep. A major goal for LD Joel Reiff, who worked with lighting director Allison Siegel, was to meet the visual expectations set by the artist’s music video performances, seen online since lindseystomp.com got underway in 2007.

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ADJ Wi-Fly Series

ADJ Wi-FLY Series

LOS ANGELES — ADJ introduces the fully cordless WiFLY Series, consisting of a wireless DMX transceiver and three compatible battery-powered LED fixtures, which, when used together, eliminate the need for both DMX cables and electrical power cords.

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Green Day 99 Revolutions Tour photo by Steve Jennings

Green Day 99 Revolutions Tour

Green Day released three albums in quick succession late last year — ¡Uno! (Sept. 21), ¡Dos! (Nov. 9) and ¡Tré! (Dec. 7) — along with a documentary chronicling the process — ¡Cuatro! — that premiered at the X Games in Aspen, CO earlier this year (now available on CD). After some preliminary promotional gigs, the band’s “99 Revolutions” tour supporting the album trilogy started in earnest with a North American leg in March and April 2013. The band then headed to Europe for shows slated from May through August 2013.

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For Wet Republic, MGM Grand in Las Vegas installed a curved LED screen measuring 38 by 10 feet in size.

A Curved LED Wall, Shining in the Sun

Names like Tiësto, Deaudmau5, Steve Aoki and Calvin Harris bring gatherings like the Electric Daisy Carnival, Ultra Music Festival and Coachella to mind, along with the Las Vegas nightclub scene — lots of late night revelers, partying to the beat to impressive, and sometimes blindingly bright, lighting and video displays. But what happens when you take the same big-name DJs and use them to draw partiers to the casino’s pool, in broad daylight? They can serve up the same throbbing basslines, but when the DJs are spinning in the sun, there’s no way a light show can deliver the same impact.

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Logo Channel's NNN Awards with Vari-Lite.

LD Tom Kenny Uses New VL3015LT Spot on NNN Awards

HOLLYWOOD, CA – The Logo Channel’s NewNowNext (NNN) Awards celebrate the most fantastic aspects of pop culture in music, television, film, web, fashion and just about everything in between. Produced in Hollywood, CA, inside the Henry Fonda Theater, the annual awards ceremony is lively, fun and energetic. When LD Tom Kenny was asked to oversee the lighting design he leapt at the opportunity to create a lighting rig full of Vari-Lite luminaires, including the new VL3015LT Spot from Philips Vari-Lite.

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MTV's 2013 Season Upfront at NYC's Beacon Theatre

Staging MTV’s 2013 Season Upfront at NYC’s Beacon Theatre

The way TV works has radically changed over the decades, from only three major networks and one screen per household to an explosion of options, not just with an expanded array of networks delivered via cable and satellite, but a whole new array of interactive media platforms as well. But one tradition that’s still holding steady, and keeping those on the live side of the entertainment industry busy, is the TV network “upfront” — elaborate corporate events designed to pique the interest of TV advertising buyers, the press and other VIPs in advance of the annual crop of new TV programming.

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ETC Source Four LED Lustr+ fixtures lighting 750-seat Pleasance Grand, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

ETC Gears Up for Edinburgh Fringe 2013

EDINBURGH, Scotland – Scotland’s annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe, held every August, is always a busy time for lighting manufacturer ETC.  This year, rental company Pleasance has teamed up with dealer Black Light to install in every one of its spaces ETC lighting and 26 ETC control desks.

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How to Destroy Angels 2013 Tour photo by Steve Jennings

How to Destroy Angels 2013 Tour

Teams and projections don’t look as impressive when they pass through clear air, hence the profusion of hazers and foggers and theatrical scrims for visual impact.
For the 2013 tour for How to Destroy Angels, a band created by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, LD Roy Bennett worked with longtime NIN art director Rob Sheridan on various semi-transparent alternatives. The goal: to come up with something that would create a novel visual twist — surrounding the band members in a box-like shape, yet standing up to the rigors of a touring production.

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Active Production and Design's setup for a social event.

Active Production and Design Celebrates 20 Years

“Trying to build a business was tough, as we were competing against larger companies with a lot more gear,” Active Production & Design’s Matt Clouser says, as he reflects on his company’s 20th Anniversary. “We had to be aggressive, and that usually meant with cost. I think any of us that start a business will end up ‘giving shows away’ as they say in the business until we build it up enough to understand there are costs in a professional organization.”

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