News

LAS VEGAS — If you haven’t yet nominated any individuals, companies or products for the 2015 Parnelli and Indispensable Technology “IT” Awards, there’s still time to do so, but the deadline of Aug. 31 is only one week away, so the time to act is now!

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – Everything about the AC/DC Rock or Bust Tour 2015 is big with a capital B, from the stadiums across Europe and North America where the band played, to the fan interest (the group set a world record selling more than 300,000 tickets in 77 minutes at one German venue), to the beefy lighting design. The Woodroffe Bassett Design rig centers on high-output discharge lamp moving fixtures along with an assortment of blinders, video panels and other fixtures including COLORado Batten 144 Tour fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

BREWSTER, MA – Lighting designer Herrick Goldman recently designed Evita at the Cape Rep Theatre and turned to Elation Professional’s Platinum Profile 35 Pro moving head light to create the compelling mood lighting. Herrick and his associate Susan Nicholson designed both the lighting and the projections for the critically acclaimed production, which is directed by William Roudebush with scenery by James Dardenne.

OMAHA, NE – Lighting and visuals designer Fenton Williams and co-LD / programmer Aaron Stinebrink again collaborated to produce a new production design – incorporating lighting, set and video – for the current Dave Matthews Band (DMB) U.S. summer tour. For the first time, they specified Robe’s BMFL Spot fixtures, 22 of which are being supplied by the tour’s lighting vendor, Theatrical Media Services (TMS) from Omaha, Nebraska.

CHARLOTTE, NC – For Toby Keith’s 2015 ‘Good Times and Pick Up Lines’ tour, which runs from May 29-Sept. 26, production designers Seth Jackson and Elizabeth O’Keefe (TPI, St. Louis) used Chauvet Professional Legend 230SR Beams supplied by Bandit Lites to light a series of pantographs to give the production a sleek, high-tech look.

RALEIGH, NC – CSD Group, Inc., a design/build AVL firm based in Fort Wayne, IN, turned to an all LED Elation lighting package for a new large worship space for Raleigh First Assembly Church. A major renovation of a building previously used as a manufacturing facility, the 1,600-seat worship space houses more than 100 Elation fixtures.

BUFFALO, NY – Katie Gilliland, production manager at the University at Buffalo Center for the Arts, found FLEXCurtain HD from PixelFLEX to be a good fit for the needs of “Electric Tundra,” an EDM concert featuring Bingo Players, 3LAU and DNNYD. Along with brightness and resolution, she cited the rigging advantages of the lightweight panels, noting that the 20’ x 8’ video wall used for the 6,500-seat arena weighed only 250 pounds.

FRESNO, CA – Clint Higham, president of Morris Higham Management, and David Haskell, president of Morris Light and Sound of Nashville, helped Fresno, CA-based theatre company Good Company Players upgrade their lighting looks with new gear sourced via A.C.T Lighting: the new MA dot2 lighting console and two additional Clay Paky Mythos moving lights.

COSTA MESA, CA – For the Toyota Summer Concert Series during the Orange County Fair, Ray Woodbury of RK Diversified Entertainment used Next NXT-1 panels from Chauvet Professional. The artists performing at the 8,000-capacity Pacific Amphitheatre included the Band Perry, Iration, Capital Cities, Deep Purple, America, The Steve Miller Band, Huey Lewis and the News and Jefferson Starship.

NASHVILLE  – American hard-rock band Shinedown recently wrapped their summer tour with lighting provided by Bandit Lites. After celebrating their ninth No. 1 single with “Cut the Cord” off their upcoming studio album Threat to Survival, the band will be back on the road in November with a co-headlining tour with Breaking Benjamin. LD Carter Fulghum used GLP, Robe, Vari-Lite and Clay Paky moving lights.

ATLANTA – Student registration is open now for the second annual LiNK theatre grad school recruiting event to be held Nov. 13-15 in Atlanta. LiNK, presented by USITT and SETC, drew 48 colleges and universities to Atlanta last year to interview and audition potential grad students for advanced degree programs in performing arts design and administration.

AARHUS, Denmark – The cities of Detroit, Geneva and Frankfurt have something in common. Each plays host to three of the world’s biggest and most prominent auto shows. Manufacturers often leverage the attention garnered by these international events to launch new flagship models that will be the core of their business for the year to come.