News

LAS VEGAS — Every year is an election year for PLSN and FOH readers who first nominate then vote for Hometown Hero candidates and, separately, nominate and vote for companies, individuals and products vying for Parnelli honors. And — thankfully — these competitions proceed smoothly and courteously, with none of the contenders locking horns with nasty negative campaigning or chanting for the incarceration (or worse) for their rivals.

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook’s F8 Developer Conference brings together developers and entrepreneurs who build products and services around the social networking website. This year it was held at Fort Mason in San Francisco, CA with 4Wall Las Vegas providing the lighting gear. The event kicked off with a keynote speech by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, along with other presentations from various Facebook executives. Seeing Eye Lighting Design and principal LD Paul Efron were tasked with the overall design for the event.

NORTHRIDGE, CA — Harman Professional Solutions noted that its 2016 road show, the Martin MAC Axiom Hybrid U.S. Tour, will continue following a successful initial run through the U.S. during May and June 2016. The manufacturer’s traveling demo program will now focus on the West Coast, with August stops planned for Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; Denver, CO; Salt Lake City, UT and San Francisco, CA before concluding in San Diego, CA.

DUSSELDORF, Germany -– drupa, a major trade event for the print media industry, took place recently at the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre.  For the first time, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG enlisted the creative and technical services of rgb gmbh to boost their presentation. CEO Dirk Feuerstein relied on tried and tested fixtures, deploying 112 GLP impression X4 L and 26 impression X4 Bar 10 & 20 as the mainstay of the production, within the company’s large booth.

NASHVILLE – Elite Multimedia is supplying the lighting and LED video for country music artist Gary Allan’s current tour in support of his new single, “Do You Wish it Was Me?” Brandon Quisberg, who is serving as production manager on the tour, worked with stage manager Alex Stegall to finalize the tour design, which was geared for touring efficiency and visual impact. Key components of the design include Elation CuePix panels for the band risers along with Vari-Lite VL3000s, Clay Paky Sharpys and Philips LED NITRO strobes on the overhead GT Tyler truss. The video setup includes a PixelFLEX LED FLEXCurtain HD elements and eight custom LED tubes.

NEW YORK –– For Gwen Stefani’s performance as part of the Today Show’s Citi Concert Series, LD Peter Greenbaum’s rig included 20 Rogue R1 FX-B moving LED fixtures from Chauvet Professional. WorldStage provided the fixtures for the live show, which was staged July 15 at New York City’s Rockefeller Plaza.

RED OAK, IOWA – — Low ceilings. A long, narrow sanctuary. Dark corners. Small budget. The production team at Faith Community Church in Red Oak, Iowa, had a host of challenges in modernizing their worship space. Their old PARs and dimmer system just weren’t shining the light where they needed it. Seeking guidance, church tech Jonathan Showalter consulted with dealer/integrator CCI Solutions, which has worked with the church since 2003 on their sound, lighting and video systems. The answer—from CCI’s Dale Erickson—came in the form of 30 elektraLite eyeBall LED fixtures.

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KANSAS CITY: Crush Music, the full service music company, came up with the idea of co-headlining two of their artists on a North American summer shed tour with Weezer and Panic! At The Disco. The tour started in Houston,TX on June 10th and will conclude in Irvine, CA on Aug 6th having played to a crowd of half a million people throughout the summer. Luz Studio’s Matthieu Larivée worked in conjunction with Weezer’s LD, Robb Jibbson, to design the touring production package.

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FORT WALTON BEACH, FL – For a project at Al’s Beach Club and Burger Bar, located on the boardwalk along Fort Walton Beach, Sohail e. Najafi and his team at Najafi Design Group (Los Angeles, Las Vegas) installed linear and panel LED fixtures from Chauvet’s Iluminarc Colorist line. These included 30 Colorist 12Qa linear and 26 Colorist 6Qa linear units (both of which are RGBA) and two Colorist Panel 8Qa fixtures. Also included in the rig are 22 COLORado 2-Quad Zoom IP, three COLORado 1-Tri IP and four Q-Wash 260-LED fixtures, as well as two Vesuvio RGBA LED foggers from Chauvet Professional, plus four Intimidator Wave 360 IRC four-headed moving fixtures from Chauvet DJ.

KANSAS CITY, MO – LD Mike Swinford, who has lit Kenny Chesney since the country artist’s first headline tour in 2001, has seen the whole visual concept for the live show evolve and change, with the main objective now being to create big impressive yet simple and straightforward looks. “It’s more about the music than a load of lighting fluff or gags” he states. To meet the needs of the current “Spread the Love” tour, Nashville-based Morris provided 24 Robe BMFL WashBeams.

ROCHESTER, NY – D&C Digital, formerly the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, is using Chauvet Professional’s Ovation E-910FC RGBA-Lime color-mixing fixtures as part of the lighting setup for its video production studio. Jonathan Lipsy, the manager of broadcast & lighting at Integrated Solutions Group, who specified the fixtures, was impressed with how its lime LEDs enhanced its color-rendering capabilities, both in the pre-testing phase of the project and for the fixtures’ actual use.

ROGERS, AR – A Kinesys automation system is adding depth and dynamics to the stage for award winning country singer / songwriter Miranda Lambert’s current “Keeper of the Flame” tour in the U.S. The automation was specified by production designer Paul ‘Arlo’ Guthrie, who wanted the additional dynamics of being able to change the architecture and form of the performance space. Having used Kinesys successfully on other tours including Lady Antebellum and Sheryl Crow, Arlo again added it to his stage plot.