International News

HARLOW, Essex, UK – Performing arts school Makin’ Steps’ annual shows have grown into larger spectacles since 1998, each year getting more creatively and technically ambitious. This year they asked London-based Colour Sound Experiment (CSE) for help with lighting, trussing, rigging, power distribution and crew. The four days of sold-out shows covered six decades of popular music since the Queen’s coronation in 1952.

NOVI SAD, Serbia – Serbian technical solutions provider Studio Berar supplied more than 130 Robe moving lights to the three biggest stages of the 20-stage EXIT Festival. Lighting designers for Studio Berar were Marko Malesevic, Goran Kravic and Radoslav Mihalek, who lit stages featuring Duran Duran, Guns N’ Roses and AVICCI, among many others.

LONDON – SGM Lighting has expanded its distribution arrangements in the UK, appointing A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd (AC-ET) to work in parallel with existing distributor, LED Projects. The new arrangement takes effect Aug. 1, and AC-ET confirms it will showcase the latest SGM range at this year’s PLASA 2012 exhibition in September.

LONDON – France TV Sport is covering the Olympic Games with a temporary TV studio on the Thames, outfitted with ETC’s Source Four LED profile spotlight providing the majority of the light. The station has rented 48 ETC Source Four LED Lustr+ Zoom 25-50-degree luminaires to help with their energy usage. The technical directors also like the fixture’s color mixing system, which allows them to achieve the natural skin tones needed for TV broadcasting.

LONDON – Renegade’s Nick Gray combined entertainment and architectural lighting to produce a lightshow for the recent Tree of Light performances, which were part of the London 2012 Festival leading up to the Summer Games. Gray incorporated as many LED and low energy light sources as possible in the design in keeping with the ethos of the project, with some of the lighting actually run via bicycle power.

JERUSALEM – Ofer Jacobi has specified Robe on the popular “Fly On The Millions” primetime TV quiz show, in which contestants answering questions incorrectly are ceremoniously dumped from the set through a trap door beneath their podium. Danor Rental supplies the lighting, which includes 20 ROBIN 300E Beams, 10 ColorWash 700E ATs, six ColorBeam 2500s and 10 ColorSpot 1200E ATs. Jacobi follows in the footlights of his father, who worked in the film industry.

LONDON – City Theatrical’s SHoW DMX Neo wireless DMX system was chosen to control the lighting on the Olympic rings on London’s Tower Bridge. LD Adam Bassett’s spec of more than 90 moving lights and a variety of other gear required four universes of SHoW DMX wireless DMX to control, along with panel antennas with custom antenna extension cables, with Transceivers built into equipment racks.

LONDON – Italy-based lighting designer Aldo Visentin is using his own Jands Vista S1 lighting console running the next generation Vista v2 software, plus two Vista M1 Wings, to control lighting for Italy’s most beloved tenor, Andrea Bocelli. At each show, Visentin has around 105 different moving lights to incorporate in to the design.  He needed a system that  traveled easily and was cost-effective.

LONDON – Dallas-based Syncrolite has three major systems in action at the Olympic Games in London. System 1 is involved in the Olympic Opening Ceremonies on July 27. System 2 is lighting the exterior of the Olympic Stadium. System 3 is lighting the exterior of the Olympics Field Hockey Stadium.

LONDON – A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) provided an architectural lighting system for the Clubhouse of the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) at Silverstone racing circuit, for their annual British Grand Prix Ball event. The task was to transform the three-story Clubhouse – located by the racetrack in prime viewing position – into a dynamic space for the event. The lighting scheme was designed by AC-ET’s Andy Smith, using lighting from Chroma-Q, PixelRange, SGM and Robe.