International News

AMSTERDAM – Belgium-based show design practice Painting with Light has created innovative and highly effective lighting and video content for the current tour by Hans Klok, the world’s Fastest Illusionist, who is presenting his grisly ‘House of Horror’ show. The spectacle, produced by Stardust Circus International, which combines the drama and theatrical gruesomeness of Gothic horror with quick witted and fantastic illusion art, was launched at the Royal Theatre Carré in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where it enjoyed a successful seven-week run before going on the road.

KOLDING, Denmark — Seeking an alternative to costlier, higher-maintenance and less flexible conventional lighting alternatives, the Danish town of Kolding hired ÅF Lighting, which provided a solution that included 38 of SGM’s IP65-rated P-2 LED fixtures to light the Koldinghus, a 700-year-old Danish castle.

AMSTERDAM — The LED specialists at InventDesign built a grid of digital LED profiles with a total length of more than 1,500 meters for the Amsterdam Music Festival, a key part of the five-day Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) held in the Dutch capital in mid-October since 1996. ADE now draws more than 2,200 DJs and electronic music-makes over a five-day span, with close to 450 events staged at 115 clubs and venues.

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).