International News

LONDON — The late Pasquale ‘Paky’ Quadri, who founded Clay Paky in 1976, was honored posthumously with the 2014 Gottelier Award during a ceremony at PLASA 2014 here earlier this month. The award honors members of the industry who have made significant and sustained contributions to the advancement of event, entertainment or installation technology.

LONDON — The seventh Knight of Illumination Awards (KOI), held at the at the Troxy Theatre here on Oct. 5, honored the creative achievements of lighting and video professionals working on shows across the U.K. The awards, organized by The Society of Television & Lighting Design (STLD), The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD), Clay Paky and Ambersphere Solutions, included touring, television and theatrical lighting and video design categories. LD Mark Jonathan served as host at the event.

LONDON – US rapper Childish Gambino’s recent London show used 18 VL3000 Wash luminaires and 16 VL2000 spots. “Childish Gambino’s show is very theatrical, not a typical rap concert,” explains LD Sarah Landau. “The visual design is focused on projections – four 20K projectors mapped onto an upstage screen, a downstage scrim, side columns, and stage set pieces. The Vari-Lite luminaires illuminated the artists without obstructing or washing out any of the projections, as well as matched their colours and textures to create a cohesive environment onstage.”

GLASGOW, Scotland – Lighting and rigging specialists dbn provided lighting for ‘Sound To Sea’, a night-time nautical spectacle staged on the River Clyde here. The visuals spanned a large distance, from the top of the Science Centre roof, where the aerialists performed, to the boats maneuvering in the dock, reaching right along to Glasgow Tower at the end of the Science Centre, which was lit up with carefully choreographed pyro sequences.

LONDON – Lighting designer Jon Clark has specified Showline’s SL Bar 640 luminaries production of A Streetcar Named Desire at The Young Vic. “The SL BAR 640 luminaires allow us to achieve a deep and intense color saturation,” notes Clark. “The range of colors the units can accurately reproduce is impressive; from dirty, sickly yellows and greens to deeply saturated reds and low frequency blues.”

LONDON – Patrick Rizzotti will give a presentation on his set designs at USITT’s PLASA booth at London’s ExCeL Center, Stand R42, on Oct. 6. Rizzotti won USITT’s 2014 Scene Design Award, which is sponsored by Rose Brand. USITT Executive Director David Grindle and several USITT officers and staff also will be at the show promoting USITT programs and the Annual Conference & Stage Expo. Rizzotti was among 11 Young Designers & Technicians honored at USITT 2014 in Fort Worth, Texas, last March.

NORMANDY, France – The Abbey of Saint Wandrille here sought to improve the church’s indoor lighting with more state-of-the-art illumination, but as silence plays a central role in the Benedictine tradition, absolute silence was a must. Thirty-five Elation TVL 3000 fixtures are mounted on a series of oak beams along the nave of the church, each fixture drawing a low 72W of power and using silent convection cooling technology to eliminate fan noise.

EDINBURGH , Scotland – Robe moving lights were used throughout the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Pleasance, a collection of performance spaces featuring numerous productions each day, relied upon a total of 46 of Robe’s fixtures, including a mix of Pointes, 600E Spots, MMX Spots, MMX WashBeams, MMX Blades and LEDWash 600s. The 750-seat Pleasance Grand was used to stage the elaborate production ofThis is Brazil. That show’s rig included 10 LEDWash 600s, six MMX Blades and six MMX WashBeams.

AARHUS, Denmark — James Blunt, alongside his Production Designer Paul Normandale and Lighting Director Glen Johnson, are on the road for another tour with Harman’s Martin Professional lighting fixtures, including 41 MAC Auras, 32 MAC Viper Profiles, six MAC Viper AirFXs and two AF1 Fans.

GLASGOW, Scotland — Two TV rental specialists — one operating in London and one in Glasgow — pooled their respective SGM inventories recently during the recent Scottish Independence Referendum. With most of the broadcast activity centered on Glasgow, Tony Kennedy’s Teknique Systems, having purchased 12 SGM P-5 Washlights from SGM UK, joined forces with Richard Martin Lighting (RML) to provide lighting infrastructure in two very different venues.

PARIS — In only their second use at a major concert event, 110 Solaris LED Mozart fixtures ringed the balcony rail of the Stade de France in Paris for the Beyoncé Jay Z On the Run HBO Concert Special.  The Mozarts were chosen to enhance the TV shoot featuring the tour’s closing dates, and stood out brightly amidst over 80,000 fans.