International News

BEIRUT, Lebanon — La Production, owned and operated by Roger Bakhos (pictured here, center), is a lighting rental company based in Hazmieh, near Beirut. The company recently added 48 Robe LEDWash 600s to their inventory. Bakhos (center) is pictured here with Elie Battah, GM, Robe Middle East Trading LLC (left); and La Production chief technician Elie Harfouche (right).

LIEDEKERKE, Belgium – Splendit, a lighting and sound rental company based here, is headed by LD/programmer Marijn Broeckaert. He formed the company in 2007 and has lately been expanding his inventory of Robe moving lights, working via Robe distributor Controllux. Broeckaert is pictured here (left) with Controllux’s Bram de Clerck.

As a premier supplier of television lighting, Richard Martin Lighting stays at the forefront by constantly updating its inventory including a number of the new Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20. The new fixtures had barely been unloaded before they were off to their first gig, the Sky Sports Awards. “There is a wide range of moving light product on the market,” said Gemma Jaques, “so it’s really important that we make the right choices when opting to invest in a new fixture.  The colours are fantastic on the units and the effects available provide that ‘something new’ that designers have been desperate to see. We’ve been extremely excited to see how they will be used.”

LD Pasi “Pasu” Koivistoinen has been using SGM lights in his work with Finnish pop singer Jenni Vartiainen over the past two years. He had this to say about the P-5 fixture. “I like to create big looks on stage with lots of colours; the P-5 is perfect for that job. They are pretty much the backbone of the show, providing the colour and pulsating. The even spread and brightness that my six floor units, washing the drapes, are able to give is somewhat jaw dropping, while the four front/side P-5s, with narrow lenses, are perfect to colour-wash the band and to give dramatic looks that I like.

NANJING, China — Elation Professional’s new Platinum BX beam and hybrid Platinum SBX moving heads debuted with the opening ceremony of the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games held here on Aug 16. LD Sha Xiao Lan used 400 Platinum BX and SBX fixtures. Beijing Fengshang Shiji Culture Art Co., Ltd. served as production company for the event.

MASADA, Israel — The fifth annual Masada Opera Festival, held at the foot of Mount Masada, featured Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata opera for an audience of thousands over the course of six days. Lighting director Bogumil Palewicz, who worked with stage director Michal Znaniecki and set designer Luigi Scoglio on the project, used Martin’s MAC Aura LED Wash, MAC Quantum Wash, MAC III Performance, MAC Viper Profile, MAC Viper Performance and MAC Viper Beam moving head fixtures to light the stage and MAC III AirFX fixtures for the surrounding area. The production company involved with the project was Israel’s Stage Design Israel.

LOS ANGELES — Elation Professional launched Sniper, a hybrid multi-effect lighting fixture and laser simulator.  Promising a “powerful, precise and ultra-narrow 3° beam,” the fixture includes a high-speed X/Y scan and Z rotation mirror system designed to enable the Sniper to spread laser-like effects including liquid sky, laser wave, and laser cone effects, all capable of high speed movement. Sniper also allows these effects to be projected and “scanned” into the crowd; laser regulations do not apply to the fixture, which is not, strictly speaking, a laser projector.

MANCHESTER, U.K. – Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1200’s and Stage Zoom 1200’s are used at Dock 10 Studios in Salford, near Manchester, where the children’s show Swashbuckle is currently being filmed. The show is aired on CBeebies, the BBC-owned channel for kids under 6, launched along with the network’s CBBC, targeting kids aged 6-12, back in 2002.