International News

ADELAIDE, Australia — Local firm Fusion responded to a design competition to liven up the capital of South Australia with a plan to permanently wrap an eight-story parking garage with a moving illuminated canvas. Designer Damien Mair said the idea was to “capture the imaginations” of passersby “and add beauty to people’s lives,” not just entertain or inform them with yet another giant video screen.

SHANGHAI — Lighting designer Zhangyong of Art Beat Asia used Robe moving lights for a new media dance performance created by the Shanghai Theatre Academy called Civilization – Totem. Staged at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre, the performance combined dance, electronic music, video, sound and lighting, and won the Innovation Award for Science & Art at the 2008 Shanghai International Science & Art Exhibition.

VIENNA, Austria — The Queen & Paul Rodgers tour, with a new lighting design by Baz Halpin and rig supplied by Bandit Lites, is also setting a new mark with an all-HD video system from XL Video. “This is the first tour for us that has taken a high definition camera/PPU/recording package for its duration, and so it’s a significant milestone for everybody involved,” said XL’s Phil Mercer.

KONSTANZ, Germany — The three-piece German punk band Die Arzte (The Physicians) used up to 76 moving lights on their recent tour. They performed at 40 European venues, with three set configurations for playing arenas, clubs and headline festival slots.

LONDON — The fixed lighting grid and rig for the old church of St. John in Smith Square were becoming almost as classical as the music performed at the English Baroque church near Westminster Abbey in London. The church had been using CCT Starlet 1.2K fresnels since the early 1980s. The church got a recent upgrade with gear from Robert Juliat.

LONDON — With its convex video screen serving as the main projection backdrop, the set for Alicia Keys’ As I Am tour has a dramatic look. But Brilliant Stages engineered it to minimize the drama facing those who would need to set it up and tear it down after each stop.

LONDON — Lighting supplied by Blinding Light and a design by Mark Mumford helped define the battlefield within The Hangar at London’s O2 for teams of laser tag warriors. Live experience company Sledge, which set up the indoor digital laser tag facility, commissioned the three-month project.

LONDON — With its neutral coloration and cool concrete, stone and opaque metal surfaces, matter, a 2,500-capacity nightclub that opened recently inside the O2 in Greenwich, had plenty of neo-industrial edge, but little chromatic excitement. Dave Parry of Most Technical worked with club owners Keith Reilly and Cameron Leslie and also architects and interior designers William Russell and Sarah Adams of Pentagram to change that.

LONDON — XL Video announced the formation of a new division, XL Events, which has been created by consolidating the corporate division of XL Video and AV specialists Show Support. Located in Bromsgrove, U.K. and Hemel Hempstead, U.K., the division will be headed by Rich Rowley, who will oversee 23 associates. Pictured here, from left to right, is Rowley and XL Video managing director Lee Spencer.

KRAKOW, Poland — It may be called the Music Media Show, but along with audio systems, lighting gear is figuring prominently in this Polish trade fair. A case in point was the booth for Robe’s Polish distributor, Prolight. The 200 square-meter booth was host to Robe’s “The Future is Digital” international roadshow.

LONDON — Paul Normandale of Lite Alternative, the U.K. based lighting production company that is supplying James Blunt’s All the Lost Souls tour, is putting seven of Martin Professional’s new MAC III Profiles through their paces.