International News

COPENHAGEN – Leading Danish rental company Comtech suppled 68 x Robe BMFL Spots to the main Helveti stage at the 2016 Copenhell Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark. Comtech has been a lighting, staging, video and rigging supplier to the popular Live Nation event which has grown year on year since its inception in 2010. Staged in the charismatic old B&W Shipyard (Burmeister & Wain) in Refshaleøen, the former industrial heart of the city, the huge piles of rusting steel and other nautical relics are awakened noisily each year by the very best of  heavy, hard and death metal music.

BELGIUM – Belgian entertainment engineering specialist WIcreations was tasked with creating a neat and novel piece of technical wizardry for Coen Janssen, keyboardist with acclaimed Dutch symphonic rock band Epica … who wanted to be able to move his keyboards up, down, along and around the stage throughout their energetic live performances.

RIO de JANEIRO – LD Durham Marenghi included Robert Juliat followspots in his designs for the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games. He used 10 Robert Juliat Lancelot 4000W HMI followspots and four Robert Juliat Cyrano 2500W HMI followspots for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Chris Henry, the spot captain employed by Marenghi, worked alongside Agora, the Italian-based lighting supplier for the Ceremonies, and credited the fixtures for their performance.

GLASGOW, Scotland – More than 150 guests attended the launch of Adlib’s new warehouse and office facility in Glasgow on Oct. 13. Located on an industrial estate near Glasgow International Airport, the Open Day event welcomed guests from all industry sectors to get better acquainted with Adlib’s partners and the gear they rent.

MELBOURNE, Australia – American dance promoter Insomniac Events, the company behind the enormous Electric Daisy Carnival, teamed up with locals Symbiotic to bring its trance brand Dreamstate to Melbourne’s Hisense Arena on October 1 for a night of deep grooves and euphoric melodies, served up by Paul van Dyk, John O’Callaghan, Rank 1, Sneijder, Genix B2B Sunny Lax, and Mark Sixma. At the heart of Matt Chromatic’s design were High End Systems Shapeshifters.

LONDON – Spotrack, a new system that turns moving lights into followspots under the control of a human operator, is now appearing nightly as a key element of the lighting design for the acclaimed Shakespeare Trilogy, produced by  Donmar Warehouse at a new temporary theatre in London’s King’s Cross. Four Spotrack systems are in use on the show, allowing four performers to be individually followed by four operators.

HEIDENHEIM an der BRENZ, Germany — At the Benefit Musical Gala organized by musical sehnsucht e.V. on behalf of children with tumors or leukemia being treated in Ulm, Germany, Steinigke Showtechnic donated the use of its stage technology at no charge, allowing for 6,000 additional Euros to be given to support the kids in need. The gala event was held in Heidenheim in June, and the featured artists also performed at no charge.

ASIA – Dutch lighting designer Jan Kortbeek has been using Avolites Media’s Ai Infinity RX server to control complex new media content for an updated version of the live musical theatre show of DreamWorks Animation’s cartoon blockbuster Madagascar. The stage production has appeared in theaters around the world, most recently in China and the Middle East.

KARLSTAD, Sweden – Woodlite, a lighitng rental company near the university town of Karlstad, Sweden, which also maintains a facility in Stockholm, recently added more than 100 Robe BMFL moving lights to their inventory, bringing their current BMFL total to close to 330 fixtures. They also own nearly 350 Robe Pointes. The company was founded by Magnus Jansson in 1995 (pictured here).

ANGLET, France – The Surf de Nuit is a unique concept gathering thousands of spectators each year in August on the Sables d’Or beach in Anglet, France. Listed in the official World Surf League (WSF) calendar, this competition sees 12 of the best professional surfers duke it out by night under the light of gigantic Airstar balloons. Equipped with LED-lined surfboards (lumiboard), the riders compete for this coveted League trophy and put on a real show with daring tricks.

JERUSALEM, Israel — For Armin van Buuren’s “Armin Only Embrace” show, a four-hour trance event that drew some 10,000 to the Pais Arena, LD Marc Heinz and Andre Beekmans from The Art of Light specified 300 Robe moving lights. Michael Seeverens, van Buuren’s touring lighting director, was at the controls.

UK – LED screen, drapes and special FX specialist S+H Technical Services is supplying their Glux 12mm LED screen to the current UK and European tour by maverick rock band 10cc which is celebrating 40 years since their seminal “Sheet Music” album. Released in 1974 this was their second album which received worldwide critical acclaim and remained in the UK charts for an incredible six months! It’s generally considered to be one of THE most influential studio albums of the 20th century.