International News

JOHANNESBURG  – “Welcome to Tomorrow” was the catch phrase used to introduce some of Gearhouse Group’s latest technology to 600 of the organization’s top clients and suppliers. The launch was housed in the inaugural build of the Maxi Dome Lite Venue, a custom temporary structure designed and built in South Africa by Gearhouse In2Structures, the Group’s specialist design and manufacturing company.

BLACKBURN, U.K. – ‘Empress of Soul’, legendary singer / songwriter Gladys Knight recently toured the UK and Blackburn based HSL was delighted to be supplying lighting equipment and crew to the production which was co-ordinated on the road for HSL by Lester Cobrin and designed by UK and Nashville based LD, Neil Scrivener.

JERUSALEM  – Israeli lighting designer Martin Adin of Pyromania presented his “Photographia – Painting with Light” installation at the 2016 ‘Light in Jerusalem’ festival of light, which involved projecting onto and lighting a large section of the city’s famous ‘Old City of Jerusalem’ close to Jaffa Gate, one of the main entrances to the old city.

WINCHESTER, UK – For its sixth year supplying the immersive metropolis, BoomTown Fair, Utopium provided lighting and rigging equipment to 12 stages and venues. The event, held Aug. 11-14, drew the biggest crowds to date – more than 60,000. Headliners this year included Madness, Damian ‘Jr Gong’ Marley and Fat Freddy’s Drop.

SYDNEY – The Ensemble Theatre in Kirribilli, Sydney, upgraded recently with 24 ETC Source Four LED Series 1 fixtures with EDLT lenses and 12  ETC Source Four fixtures with standard lenses. The upgrade included 22 sections of Jands JLX-Lite modular lighting bars to allow for a slightly flatter angle to the stage. Production manager Tom Blunt credited the move for trimming consumables expenses and storage requirements.

MEXICO CITY – The recently opened My Way nightclub in Mexico City is drawing attention with a distinctive visual design. The club features five separate but related zones: the bar, the ‘Cube’, the disco, the terraces and the VIP area. Each was designed to project its own distinct ‘personality’ and specific lighting treatment. Ricardo Flores, director of Leds4Skys, used DTS fixtures. The main area is lit with 30 JACK fixtures. They are fixed to the wall along the perimeter of the ‘Cube.’ The club also makes use of 23  MAX and 10 xNICK NRG 1201 fixtures to light up the dance floor. Luis Diaz serves as lighting programmer at the club.

BLACKPOOL, UK – LD Ollie Wilkinson used Chauvet fixtures for a graduation ball held at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom earlier this year. The event, in honor of those completing their studies at Lancaster University, featured lighting from a rig that included Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 Spot Q-Wash 560Z-LED moving fixtures and Chauvet DJ MotionOrbs and PiXPar 24 par fixtures.

EMMEN, The Netherlands – When the local zoo in Emmen, the Netherlands, closed at the end of 2015 it wasn’t long before animal lovers in the area had a renewed and even better animal theme park to visit. Inspired by Disney’s Animal Kingdom and SeaWorld Orlando, Wildlands Adventure Zoo opened its doors on March 25th, 2016 as the area’s new must-visit theme attraction.

SAO PAULO, Brazil — After passing their 50-year milestone in 2015, Germany-based rockers, The Scorpions, are still going strong, performing around the world with mostly locally-provided gear. Associate LD and lighting operator Manfred Nikitser from Vienna-based Manik Show Lighting is running the lighting for the current touring schedule with Rainer Becker. Robe’s BMFL Spots are among a number of primary moving light fixtures on Nikitser’s rider..

STOCKHOLM – LD Mikkel Samuelsen used Ayrton MagicDot-R fixtures for the recent Weekend (WKND) Festival, which took place early August in Sweden, Finland and Estonia. Samuelsen was asked to create a design for the main WKND stage and chose Ayrton’s MagicDot-R as a major component of the main lighting scheme.

CORNWALL, UK – Bristol, UK based lighting and visuals rental company Fineline supplied lighting, video and rigging equipment plus crew to Duran Duran Live at Eden with BBC Music Day, staged at the Eden Project in Cornwall. The special concert was the finale of the BBC’s 2016 Music Day – a nationwide celebration designed to unite different generations and communities through music.

OSLO, Norway — Some 17 members from Oslo’s BI Business School suffered minor injuries when part of the ceiling collapsed at the Sentrum Scene theater on August 21. According to witnesses, sections of the ceiling plaster (approximately a few centimeters in thickness) gradually began falling, first as small bits and then as large sections.