Pharos - Leaderboard - May 2024

Projects

Details
China - Held at the Beijing National Stadium, commonly known as the Birds Nest, the final of Sing China’s inaugural season attracted a live audience of over 60,000. Simultaneously broadcast by Zhejiang Television, the production required professional sound that would ignite the massive audience so their energy would translate into a dynamic show.
Rightway Audio Consultants Ltd designed an audio system that was up to the Herculean task, utilising a total of 218 L-Acoustics loudspeakers.
Sing China was hosted by superstar Li Hua shao, with renowned artists Jay Chou, Na Ying, Wang Feng and Harlem Yu as coaches and sought to find new vocal talent drawn from public auditions, taking the chosen acts through a series of rounds before announcing Jiang Dunhao of Team Wang Feng the winner.
“We supplied all audio requirements for the two Playoff rounds and

Details
Estonia - Robe’s DL4S Profiles and DL4F Fresnels – 52 in total – have been specified and installed at the new Nuku (Puppet) Theatre in Tallinn. This world-famous theatre has just opened a completely new space – formally an outside courtyard - at its theatre complex in the heart of the picturesque and vibrant Estonian capital.
The project is one of the latest in a number of high profile theatre installations of Robe DL series LED moving lights around the world. The luminaires have been specifically designed for performance applications, combining all the benefits of LED technology with the refined features and functionality expected from a theatrical fixture.
The new Ferdinand Stage at the Nuku Theatre now becomes the main venue. Its development includes a new entrance and foyer which have been integrated seamlessly and stylishly into the existing building. The

Details
USA - Located in Columbus, Georgia, Cascade Hills Church is a congregation filled with parishioners from all walks of life who wish to come together for a spirit-filled worship experience. Like many other churches worldwide, the technical elements behind that worship experience, including the architectural house lights, are becoming an important component to the overall sanctuary design.
With an aging house lighting system of their own, Cascade Hills Church recently worked with the integration division of their longtime partner Morris, and renovated their house lighting design with Chalice LED Pendant and Recessed LED downlights from Altman Lighting.
“This was actually our third technology installation at Cascade Hills Church where we have previously retrofitted their theatrical lighting, video and audio systems,” began Dustin Burggraff, Morris integration divisio

Details
USA - Nashville’s 19th Annual Grammy Block Party returned to Cumberland Park for a party for Recording Academy’s yearly member’s event.
Chris Lisle Lighting Design utilised a lighting package from Bandit Lites where musical performances included Grammy-award winning super group, Lady Antebellum, Anderson East, Moon Taxi, CeCe Winans and Muddy Magnolias.
With the Nashville cityscape as a backdrop to the festivities, it is a far cry from the small stage outside of the Nashville Grammy offices that production manager Chris Lisle illuminated nearly 20 years ago. In addition to providing the lighting for the show, Chris Lisle Lighting Design (with support from Mark Anderson from their home office) also provided the production management for the stage and performances.
“We couldn’t be more proud to be a part of it and to partner with the Recording Academy to

Details
USA - Fans of Mastodon weren’t surprised when three of the band’s members appeared in an episode of Game of Thrones. Like the HBO hit, the music of this group reveals itself in lavishly detailed layers of fantasy that fire the imagination and leave easy categorisations smouldering by the wayside.
The complex Mastodon experience is on full display in the quartet’s 30-city North American Emperor of Sand tour, not just in the epochal music, but also in the highly evocative light and video show that Michael Howe created and controls with the new ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium and Magic HD media server.
The Emperor of Sand album takes listeners on a cosmic odyssey through time as it follows a man sentenced to death in a majestic but cruel desert. Howe’s design evokes rich imagery that reflects this musical narrative with seven 2’ wide by 14’ tall vid

Details
USA - The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) has celebrated William Shakespeare’s legacy since 1935 with another busy summer season of plays underway. OSF also stages plays by other playwrights and is presenting UniSon at the Angus Bowmer Theatre through October, a new musical inspired by the poetry of August Wilson.
Lighting designer Alex Jainchill is using dynamic lighting from Elation Professional on the play, including ZCL 360 Bar wash/effect lights and Platinum Wash 16R Pro moving heads, as well as colour-changing Elation Flex LED Tape.
UniSon is the story of a dying poet who leaves a mysterious box to his apprentice with strict instructions to destroy it. The apprentice opens it however, releasing seven ‘Terrors’ that tormented the poet through his life. The seven different Terrors allowed Jainchill to use six of the ZCL 360 Bar fixtures to tr

Details
UK -Currently running at The Vaults beneath London’s Waterloo Station, Alice’s Adventures Underground is an immersive theatrical retelling of the classic Alice in Wonderland story. Presented by theatre company Les Enfants Terribles, the play originally ran last year at the same venue and was nominated for an Olivier Award. White Light originally supplied the lighting equipment and have done so once again on this occasion.
Alice’s Adventures Underground allows audience members to meet some of Wonderland’s most famous and curious inhabitants, take tea at the biggest unbirthday party with the maddest of hatters and even join the underground movement to rise against the fearsome Queen of Hearts.
The lighting designer is Mike Gunning, who comments: “I have worked on shows similar in the past such as Punchdrunk’s The Drowned Man. My br

Details
UK - Following the successful installation of an Avid S6 desk for Giles Martin, AKA Design technical furniture was chosen for Abbey Road Studios' three new studio spaces – the biggest transformation since the studios opened in 1931 – plus a refurb of Studio 52.
The Gatehouse is a tracking studio, featuring new AKA left and right worktops in walnut for the room’s 16-fader AMS Neve BCM10 console. The worktops feature desktop angled rack bays plus under-desk curved rack bays in a grey lacquer finish.
The Front Room is designed for smaller recordings and music production, and now has stylish left and right worktops in oak with rack bays in grey lacquer either side of its 24-fader SSL Duality console.
Studio 52 is a flexible mix room that was given a refurb as part of the programme, and now contains an ergonomic rise-and-fall oak desk, for sitting or standing

Details
Germany - The new Claypaky SharBar and other Claypaky products were used by a trio of young artists at the annual artistic lighting awards LiO (Light is Osram) Awards 2017 in their winning installation The 5th Dimension, hosted at Munich's historic event space, the Praterinsel, by German lighting manufacturer Osram.
The winning installation was designed by the artists Eylül Aslan, Sola Thoma and Frederic Hanen to explore the spatial interplay of light and dark. The artists used the SharBar in conjunction with the Claypaky Show-Batten 100 and architectural lighting product the Claypaky Odeon Flood to construct an immersive light show described by judging light artist Ingo Maurer as a "fascinating personal experience".
"The 5th Dimension installation created a series of emerging walls and columns of light that appear to create a 'fifth dimension', making l

Details
UK - Robe co-hosted a ground-breaking LED Theatrical event staged by staff and students on the Theatre Production course at Guildford School of Acting (GSA), part of the University of Surrey.
The Czech Republic based manufacturer supplied around 50 LED luminaires to the event and to GSA’s 2017 gala musical production staged at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in central Guildford, Surrey, including its DL7 theatrical range - plus the new Spiider LED wash beam, CycFX 8s, Spikies and VIVAs - plus technical support.
The idea of an LED Theatre event was originated by GSA Lighting Tutor Mig Burgess and facilitated by Ashley Lewis from Robe UK. She wanted to devise some innovative and fresh ways to demonstrate lighting technologies in a working environment. Several productions are staged across the university's various venues over an academic year and Mig felt that as theatre pro

Details
USA - For their Art of the World Gallery in Houston’s River Oaks area, co-owners Liliana Molina and Mauricio Vallejo wanted to augment their guests’ appreciation of the outstanding contemporary artists they display.
Southwest Building Systems of nearby Silsbee was engaged to realize this vision, and an audio visual system was installed to support artist presentations and provide background music. There is also a sound system in the VIP room, where patrons can privately view art they are considering for purchase.
“The idea was to create a warm, comfortable ambience throughout the gallery, while keeping the visual focus on the art itself,” says Brent Thornhill of Southwest Building Systems. “We knew that a combination of Bosch signal processing and the new EVID Compact Sound loudspeakers by Electro-Voice could produce the audio impact they wanted while being,

Details
USA - When Brandon Baruch first heard from a friend about Nick Wylie’s plans to produce the Bataré tour, he realized that this innovative show was something he would like to light. “I tend to gravitate towards projects that require an unconventional design approach,” he said. “So, when Nick told me the concept of the piece, I was immediately drawn in by the fusion of styles and genres. I was also intrigued to learn there was a narrative arc for the performers, because it speaks to my theatre background as well.”
After a meeting with Wylie of Testu Productions, Baruch got his wish. Designing for the current Bataré tour, he has conveyed the emotional flow of this multi-faceted acrobatic Taiko rock show with a colourful and flexible lighting design, using a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Kinetic Lighting.
“It’s a really fun product

Details
UK - Solan Fitness has opened its latest fitness centre following a £1.2m development in East Grinstead, Sussex.
The 15,500sq.ft. strength training facility, situated in the town’s Atrium Building, has developed out of the martial arts concept at the company’s pilot venue in Orpington. All zones - including Cardio, Weights, Spin and Dance/Fitness - are serviced by Martin Audio CDD loudspeaker systems, specified and provided by Old Barn Audio.
Entrepreneur Josh Ahmet had originally contacted the Martin Audio partners, for whom fitness clubs is one of their specialities, following an internet search. Director, Neil Kavanagh, was soon undertaking a site survey, noting that the facility also included a touchscreen accessible FitboxVirtual, a powerful technology platform to run virtual classes in the fitness centre out of hours.
Mindful of the high degree of rev

Details
USA - S. Jeremy Peters loves piloting small FPV drones. There is, he says, “no rush quite like it.” He and his wife Alison Peters wanted to share their passion for drone flying with a wider audience. As owners of SJP Productions, a lighting and projection company experienced working festivals, they were in an excellent position to do so. Hooking up with a local brewery, they created one of the first spectator-oriented drone racing events, complete with festival-like lighting, atmospherics and live video feeds all controlled with a three-universe set up built around ChamSys Software.
“Typically drone races are geared toward the racers themselves without a lot of spectators,” said Peters. “Generally, they don’t have much production. Alison and I wanted to draw on our production experience at festivals like Lockn, Peach, Bisco, Mountain Jam, Taste of Country and Gat

Details
Europe - Boston-based lighting designer Jeff Maker once again chose Robe as his main moving lights for the most recent UK and European tour for US rockers All Time Low which was a teaser for their upcoming Last Young Renegade album release, scheduled for release in June.
The band combine their hi-energy, in-the-face mix of gritty pop punk rock with a relentlessly busy touring schedule and are renowned for their live performances. Europe is an ever-popular destination and on this tour they played a whole range of venues encompassing academies, town halls and arenas.
Lighting was supplied by Zig Zag Lighting from Leeds, UK. Prominent on the rig were 15 Robe Spiider wash beams, part of a batch newly purchased by the rental company for this tour, together with other Robe luminaires like BMFL Spots, Pointes and CycFX 8s.
(Jim Evans)

Details
USA - American heavy rock band Tesla has cultivated a loyal fan base over the last 30 years, playing an unpretentious, blue-collar style of music that hard rock audiences love. For an ongoing tour that started in January, band lighting designer and creative director Ignacio “Iggy” Rosenberg is using an Elation rig to complement the band’s big rock sound and surprising (to some) long list of hits.
“The main thing was they were venturing into having more of a production for the first time in years, so we were trying to be cautious about spending too much, but also giving them as much of a show as we could,” commented Iggy, who has been working with the band for the past three years. “This was a great tour to understand the concept of providing something that was inexpensive, but not cheap.”
Working from a short production timeline, Iggy chose Platinum FLX

Details
USA - LD Matt Guminski was called in to design American pop singer-songwriter JoJo’s 2017 Mad Love Tour just a week before the tour launched in February and turned to Elation Professional moving heads and effect lights to light the re-emerging popstar’s show. Touring in support of her Mad Love album which came out last October – her first album release since the mid 2000s – JoJo is selling out 900-1800 capacity venues at nearly every stop and is clearly on her way back to top star status after charting in 2004 as a 13-year old.
His first time working with JoJo, Matt felt an immediate bond with the artist, who grew up in Boston near where he calls home, and took the short lead time in stride. Matt acts as lighting designer and operator on tour (he programmed the show on the road) and often handles lighting crew duties as well. To light the artist’s R&B-inspired

Details
Poland - Nearly 100 Claypaky fixtures illuminated the interior of UNESCO world heritage site, the Centennial Hall in Wroclaw, Poland, for its live production of large-scale theatrical performance Niebo as part of the closing celebrations of the city's year-long status as European Capital of Culture 2016.
Creative producer and multimedia lighting designer for Niebo was Pawal 'Spider' Pająk, founder of Polish production design company Fish Eye. Spider specified a number of Claypkay Mythos, Sharpy and A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures from Polish rental outfit Transcolor to craft the production's vast spot, beam and wash effects.
"The Centennial Hall is an extremely high venue," says Spider. "For the Niebo production I needed to rig all my fixtures at around 23/24 metres above stage level. This meant I had to look for fixtures with brightness and quality tha

Details
USA - The Chanhassen Dinner Theatres complex has been a beehive of activity since it opened in 1968. In a typical year, its kitchen will serve 14 tons of steaks, four tons of prime rib, 120,000 chicken breasts, 18 tons of fresh green beans and half a million dinner rolls. Things are equally busy on the theatrical side. Over 10m people have seen shows at the Chanhassen, which is the largest professional dinner theatre in the US. Most productions run eight shows a week for six months, separated by breaks of only a few days.
The production schedule at the theatre complex, which is located 20 miles from Minneapolis, is not only full, it’s also varied, with musicals, concerts, dramas, comedies, one-person shows and ensembles all being performed on its stages.
Sue Berger, the theatre’s lighting director has three main criteria in mind when selecting fixtures for her of

Details
UK - The all-wooden box drum or cajón may be the world’s most popular percussion instrument, yet it is also one of the hardest to amplify, because it produces sharp bursts of sound energy (transients) when played. Finding the right microphones to capture the subtle “woodsy” tone and transient-rich sound of his cajón was proving to be a challenge for percussionist David Mortara – until he discovered the DPA d:dicate range.
Malambo has performed in many of London’s top music venues and festivals, including the Southbank Centre (Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall), the Bloomsbury and Ealing Festivals,and on the club and corporate entertainment circuit. Corporate gigs can take place in some very unusual and acoustically problematic spaces not designed for critical listening – such as the Victoria & Albert Museum Refreshment Rooms and Cannon Bridge Roo

Details
USA - Penn & Teller’s outrageous blend of magic and comedy has remained one of the hottest tickets in Las Vegas for over 20 years, and when the production team decided to upgrade the show’s set and scenery, it was also time to invest in new stage lighting technology. Lighting designer Jeff Croiter specified eight High End Systems SolaSpot Pro 1500s, purchased through 4Wall, for the Penn & Teller Theatre in the Rio Hotel.
Croiter explains, “I was in Las Vegas during LDI, at meetings in preparation to do the Penn & Teller show renovation. I had a day off and went to the convention, and I ran into Al Ridella from 4Wall. He said ‘you have to come over and see this light - I’m thinking about buying some’, and that light was the SolaSpot Pro 1500. Al introduced me to Bobby Hale and the High End team, and they ran the light through its paces. I was very imp

Details
USA - With ardent fans still clamouring to see the living legend live, musical genius Brian Wilson extended his 50th anniversary tour of Pet Sounds, an album hailed as one of the world’s greatest musical endeavours.
Bandit Lites provides the lighting package for the tour, which features Pet Sounds being performed in its entirety with band members Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin along with other hits from the Beach Boys and Wilson’s more recent albums.
“When I was a kid, there was magic in music,” said lighting designer Chris Stuba of working with Wilson. “When I started studying Pet Sounds last year, I realized these pop songs are true, pure music magic, full of honesty and heartbreak. The audiences have been so incredible going on this journey with us every night, and the music is so full of joy, it makes people who hear it happy. I am ve

Details
Poland - Nearly 100 Claypaky fixtures illuminated the interior of UNESCO world heritage site, the Centennial Hall in Wroclaw, Poland, for its live production of large-scale theatrical performance Niebo as part of the closing celebrations of the city's year-long status as European Capital of Culture 2016.
Creative producer and multimedia lighting designer for Niebo was Pawal 'Spider' Pająk, founder of Polish production design company Fish Eye. Spider specified a number of Claypkay Mythos, Sharpy and A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures from Polish rental outfit Transcolor to craft the production's vast spot, beam and wash effects.
"The Centennial Hall is an extremely high venue," says Spider. "For the Niebo production I needed to rig all my fixtures at around 23/24 metres above stage level. This meant I had to look for fixtures with brightness and quality tha

Details
India - At the end of last year, over 80,000 people descended on the MMRDA Ground in Mumbai for the first ever Global Citizen Festival India. This was the biggest music festival ever produced in the country and required the biggest L-Acoustics systems ever seen or heard in India. In fact, its sheer scale dictated that India’s most prestigious rental companies join forces to supply the required 200-plus loudspeakers.
The Global Citizen Festival is organised by Global Poverty Project. Based in New York, it has been running since 2012, bringing together the biggest international stars to raise awareness of extreme poverty across the world, its goals being closely aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Global Citizen Festival India was produced by Wizcraft India and featured international artists including headliners Coldplay – lead singer Ch
  1. Robe helps Slovenia on its way to Eurovision
  2. AIDAprima sails with Sennheiser MobileConnect
  3. Sporting event production with Pearce Hire
  4. Matrix glows with new LED purchase
  5. Alcons LR7 reinforces Theaterstübchen Kassel
  6. Autosport 2017 adrenaline rush with Robe
Page 371 of 381
Robe - Large MPU
GLP - MPU - May-June 2024

Latest Issue. . .