International News

HOF, Germany — Working with Soundhouse, Tait Technologies is providing staging and automation support for Helene Fisher’s current tour, which began here Sept. 18. Tait provided the main stage, a hydraulic 12.4-meter lifting arm and three lifts controlled by Tait’s Navigator automation system. Tait project manager Matthew Hales noted that the tour serves as an example of how the company can reconfigure existing staging and automation elements to create a fresh new look without breaking a tour’s budget.

SURREY, UK – displayLED has opened The Pixel Depot, a showroom and resource featuring innovative LED products from leading manufacturers. The Pixel Depot opened this September at the company’s headquarters near Dorking, Surrey. Products on display include solid LED modules and tiles, creative and flexible displays, mesh/curtain products, video controllers, content management software and an LED dance floor. They’re also showing digiLED product applications, including the use of wearable LED and incorporation into objects such as a piano, as used by a leading US performer.

NELSPRUIT, South Africa – Robe moving lights were at the hub of the lighting action for a Main Stage design by Johan Ferreira from JSF Productions at the 2012 Innibos Festival in South Africa. The organizers wanted to up the ante on the look and feel of the event – and in particular the Main Stage – so Ferreira set about designing looks with a theatrical feel. This was his seventh year to design the lighting.

COVENTRY, UK – A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) Ltd. have designed, supplied and installed complete technical facilities for the Sidney Stringer Academy’s (SSA) new theatre in Coventry, UK. ACSP specified lighting, audio and video technologies, and installed a comprehensive Cat5 data network. The academy’s existing kit was also integrated into the theatre.

LONDON — The fifth annual Knight of Illumination Awards (KOI), organized by Clay Paky, the Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) and the Society of Television & Lighting Design (STLD), honored the U.K. LDs who created the most distinctive looks for live events and TV.

LONDON – London’s Royal National Theatre has three theatres under its control. It recently invested in two new 8-channel Kinesys DigiHoist controllers to upgrade its existing system at its Cottesloe Theatre venue. The sale follows on from the purchase of a 21-channel Kinesys Elevation 1+ motor system, which is used regularly across its two other venues, the Olivier and Lyttelton Theatres. The National Theatre’s Rigging Resources Supervisor, Matthew Wheeler, specified the purchase.

LONDON – LD Theo Cox’s visual scheme for Seal’s “Soul2” world tour mixes the mediums of lighting, video and automation. The tour has completed its first Australian and US legs, and is ready to hit Europe in autumn. The only set onstage is a pair of risers, and so the stage architecture is defined by seven movable pods, each fitted with a portrait-orientated video screen.

TORONTO – The Knights of Illumination Awards, hosted by Clay Paky, incorporated special new effects during its Sept. 9 event at Battersea Evolution in London. The opening sequence used the CAST BlackTrax to create a spotlight effect but without the spotlight ops.

LONDON – AED Rent made the winning bid for the Olympic Torch donated by Robe (and pictured here with Robe’s Josef Valchar). The auction, which took place Sept. 10 at PLASA in London, netted £6,200 – more than $10,000 – for Light Relief, the U.K.-based charity for industry professionals in dire straits.

BERLIN, Germany – German punk band Die Ärzte finished their latest tour of German-speaking countries with LD Lui Helmig and the latest Robe moving lights, including LEDBeam 100s, LEDWash 600s and ColorSpot 2500E ATs. Helmig has been with the band for 27 years, and began using Robe fixures in 2004.