News

NASHVILLE – Nashville once again held one of the largest Independence Day events in the country, as even with a dismal forecast, event organizers for Let Freedom Sing July 4 in Music City, estimated than somewhere between 125,000 to 150,000 turned out to honor our nation’s birthday along the riverfront. Bandit Lites once again worked with Chris Lisle Lighting Design to provide lighting for the celebration.

LAS VEGAS — The Parnelli Awards nominations process has been underway since early August, and there’s still time to let your preferences be known and for your voice to be heard. (And if you haven’t done so, you can also nominate a product for an Indispensable Technologies “IT” Award this month as well.) But time is running out — the nominations deadline for both the Parnelli Awards and the IT Awards this year is Aug. 24, 2016, at 8 a.m., Pacific time. (Those on the East Coast get until 11 a.m. before the nominations window slams shut.) These nominations will form the basis of the Parnelli ballot, which will be posted in early September. Final voting takes place throughout September.

NEW YORK – Behind the Scenes noted that LD and theatre consultant Dawn Chiang has accepted an invitation to join the group’s Board of Directors. Chiang has designed lighting on Broadway, Off Broadway, the New York City Opera, regional theatres across the country, and concert tours. A few highlights include Zoot Suit on Broadway; work at Manhattan Theatre Club, Arena Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Guthrie Theater; and a Paul Anka tour. Chiang has earned two Drama-Logue Critics’ Awards and numerous nominations around the country.

DETROIT LAKES, MN – Since 1983, WE Fest has been drawing crowds with a country music and camping festival experience at Soo Pass Ranch. Attendees gathered around the stage for performances from rising country stars and established megastars like Tim McGraw, Kid Rock, Eric Church and Steven Tyler from Aerosmith. Upstage Video returned to Detroit Lakes, MN for the sixth year in a row to provide LED rental services. With more than 150,000 attendees at the event, Upstage Video was responsible for distributing the action on stage to the crowd using two 17’ x 27’ LED walls using their CS-8 8mm LED tile. The screens flanked either side of the stage using client-provided truss. 

OMAHA, NE – For the 2016 tour featuring Christian band Building 429, LD John Hansen of EnHansen Design used 18 Chauvet Professional Nexus Aw 7×7 LED panels supplied by Theatrical Media Services. Hansen created memorable visuals by taking customized aluminum gobo cutouts of the band’s logo and positioning them in front of the Nexus Aw 7×7 fixtures. He also arranged LED strip lights behind the Nexus units.

SAN DIEGO — Major League Baseball’s All-Star FanFest took place the week leading up to the 2016 All-Star Game on July 12 at Petco Park in San Diego. One of the FanFest’s most popular events was the MLB All-Star Bash. A lineup of acts including Akon, Fall Out Boy and DJ Vice performed beneath a lighting rig that featured Platinum Series moving heads, ACL Bar 360 LED effect lights and Colour Chorus Series LED battens from Elation Professional.

HARTFORD, CT –  LMG Touring supplied a full lighting package including more than 200 Elation ACL 360i beam effect fixtures for rappers G-Eazy and Logic’s co-headlining “The Endless Summer” tour. G-Eazy’s Production Designer Sooner Routhier developed the design concept for G-Eazy’s set.

KNOXVILLE, TN – For Shinedown’s “Carnival of Madness” tour, Sooner Routhier and Robert Long of lighting design firm SRae Productions worked with lighting director Carter Fulghum used Bandit Lites’ recently-acquired Chauvet Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures. Bandit Lites notes that their company is the first in the world to take these new fixtures out on tour. The Chauvet Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures give lighting designers and crew the ability to leverage a row of five individually controlled heads for new lighting looks.

WILMINGTON, DE. – High End Systems, a Barco Company, will be hosting an open house at Main Light Industries.  This event will allow customers to see and experience the latest technology from High End Systems, including SHAPESHIFTER, SolaSpot Pro 1000, SolaWash FX 1000, SolaSpot Pro 1500, SolaSpot Pro 2000, SolaWash Pro 2000, Uno, the Hog4 line of consoles and more.

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – The Beverly Hilton’s AquaStar Pool now features a lighting update featuring Chauvet Professional and Iluminarc fixtures installed by AMP’D Entertainment. Owner Arteen Kharrat and his team provided Ovation E910-FC and Colorist Pod 7Qa RGBA fixtures along with 22 Ovation E910-FC units and 24 Colorist fixtures for the pool area.

CLEVELAND, OH – For the 2016 Republican National Convention, which took place July 18–21 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, LD David Grill and lighting director Paul Sonnleitner used a rig that included Clay Paky Mythos lighting fixtures and grandMA2 consoles for control. The elephant in the room, so to speak, was the video backdrop (it was HUGE). That meant the lighting truss had to be 85 feet in the air, requiring fixtures that could perform well with a 120-foot throw distance and 65 foot candles of white light on the floor. PRG provided Grill with 68 Clay Paky Mythos for effects lighting. Clay Paky and grandMA products are distributed by A.C.T Lighting.

WEST PALM BEACH, FL — Theatrical Media Services (TMS) has been supporting the Dave Matthews Band for 23 years, and lighting and scenic designer Fenton Williams has lit DMB since 1991. The lighting rig got an update this year with new fixtures including Elation Colour Chorus Series LED battens and SixPar 200 LED Par lights. This summer’s tour wraps up in early September with three shows in George, WA.