To bring the rock opera to life, Zieve and lighting programmer Colin Scott met with Production Resources Group to for a shootout of high-output moving heads. “When I saw the VL3600, I immediately fell in love with it,” said Zieve. “I was particularly concerned with the colour temperature of the engine without colour in it, and when I looked at the VL3600, I loved the colour temperature of it. It was very important to me that people actually look good standing in that native white light. That way, I didn’t have to overcorrect it. I could get the maximum amount of light coming out of it, and it was going to look good on someone.”

“The open white beam on those is really crisp and clean and just the quality of the optics was really, really great,” agreed Scott. “Once we saw the VL3600 compared to everything else, its brightness and colour blew anything else out of the water. Just the intensity and the colour we could get and a lot of the beamage, including the dichroic animation wheel, was phenomenal for us. It had really beautiful, saturated colours and also didn’t have the major colour fringing issues that a lot of LED fixtures have. So we’re able to get really clean, crisp looks out of it in saturated colour without compromising what we were doing.”

The colours in the VL3600 were a key deciding factor, given this new version of TOMMY features a tightly controlled colour palette across lighting, projection, costume, and set design. “All of Tommy’s individual traumas are coloured like a thread in a tapestry,” explained Zieve. “By sticking to this palette and being very monochromatic in those choices per scene, then when we get ‘Pinball,’ we’re allowed to kaleidoscope that. Tommy’s whole world is opening up, and we tie that thing in the past to this thing happening now.”

Part of that design requirement meant the colours needed to be consistent across fixtures, something the VL3600 excelled at. “The colour calibration too was very uniform,” said Zieve. “I wouldn’t run into, you know, this one just looks like a slight more magenta or anything. And it would have been noticeable, even though we’re basically in a black set.”

“The fixtures were remarkably good as far as colour calibration and consistency of colour between fixtures,” added Scott. “We’ve had a lot of issues recently with other products in that class, where every fixture is different. With the VL3600s, these were incredibly consistent and reliable.”

Zieve and Scott also both praised the gobo and animation capabilities in the VL3600. Zieve praised the colour animation wheel, which she said reminded her of the colour dots on the VL3500. Scott had many nice things to say about the stock gobo selection as well saying that “everything in the VL3600 felt really right,” providing a broad range of options from tight blobs and breakups to large psychedelic looks.

“The VL3600s were the workhorses of the production,” explains Scott. “They could do tight specials or do large template ideas in the air, anything from really small, tight theatrical moments to big rock ‘n’ roll numbers. The VL3600 was able to do all those things.”

A big fan of the original VL3500, Zieve simply concluded, “Something about when I first turned on the VL3600. Even just looking at the light and standing by it, any of that, I was like, ‘I think this is the new 3500 that we’ve been waiting for’.”

Photo credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.

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Supplied by Upstaging, the high-output IP65-rated fixtures were positioned throughout the rig by LD  Shaheem Litchmore. From these positions they created a glow over the performance area. The fixtures also flashed their colour rendering prowess, blasting out a rainbow of dynamic chase sequences.

Every bit of the Color STRIKE M’s versatility was needed, as Coldplay took the gigantic crowd on a multifarious musical journey.

Just as the Color STRIKE M was touching eyes and hearts on Saturday night, another CHAUVET Professional fixture was making waves (quite literally!) on the Pyramid Stage the night earlier for Friday headliner Dua Lipa. Lining the contour of the stage and thrust deck, was the COLORado PXL Curve 12, supplied by LCR. LD Matt Pitman and the Pixelmappers team created a flowing visual accompaniment to the high energy moves of the Grammy and Brit Award winner as she banged out 15 of her Top 40 hits surrounded by lithe dancers.

The big Friday night crowd danced right along with Dua Lupa and the performers on stage. Joining them step-for-pulsating-step, with its 12 independently controlled moving heads, was the COLORado PXL Curve 12.

The excitement generated by CHAUVET Professional fixtures on the Pyramid Stage wasn’t limited to the Friday and Saturday headliners. Earlier Saturday evening, 174 of the company’s STRIKE Array 1 blinders, supplied by GLS, supported the performance of Mercury winner, Michael Kiwanuka. The STRIKE units accented the ecstatic psychedelic soul sound of the artist on stage thanks to an inspired lightshow by Ed Warren, and run by Amy Barnett.

With its IP 65-rated fixtures lighting up the Pyramid stage for headlines on two successive nights, as well as one of the festival’s more memorable shows by a rising star, CHAUVET Professional had a lot to celebrate at Glastonbury 2024.

The post CHAUVET Professional lights Glastonbury Pyramid Stage for Headliners appeared first on A1 Lighting Magazine.

As a result, when it collaborated with fellow design company DoLaB to present its unique MACROdose dance music stage for the first time at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, it were able to integrate large quantities of its recently acquired impression X5 IP Bar 1000s, X5 IP Maxx and much-coveted JDC2 IP to animate a series of ‘fabric mushroom’ sculptures which looked like they had just sprouted out of the desert grass.

DoLaB itself is a collective comprising brothers Dede, Jesse and Josh Flemming which builds bespoke architectural and art pieces. The installation itself consisted of nine oversized, satellite-shaped sculptures distributed across a field, under which festivalgoers could get some shade, rest and dance. Maktive delivered all the lighting and took care of the programming.

Maktive director Bryan McClanahan, who co-founded the partnership with Patrick Randall, explains that the two companies had collaborated on avantgarde art projects in the past: “For Coachella we were asked whether we could come up with a couple of different scenarios with different lighting configurations.

The goal was to keep as many lights hidden as possible, but obviously some fixtures needed to be unobstructed.” Those that they chose to reveal included FUSION by GLP Exo Beam 10 and JDC2 IPs. Meanwhile, up inside each of the mushroom type shapes were the X5 IP Bar and also the X5 IP Maxx – part of a burgeoning fleet of GLP new generation solutions in its rental inventory.

But it is the new JDC2 IP, offering more power and creativity than its predecessor, which has excited the company the most. Significantly, it offers the ability to create unique digital effects with an individually controllable pixel matrix. A powerful built-in dual-Cortex CPU with graphic processing offers over 100 GLP DigiFX, giving an eye-watering range of digital content.

“We first saw them at LDI,” says McClanahan. “For us it clicked right away the second we saw them in the booth.” He ordered 150 pieces in what the Maktive director describes as a blind purchase. “For us, this is our largest investment in a single type of fixture. We could see that the in-built 128-channel mode DigiFX were really a digital gobo that could be manipulated with X and Y coordinates like a moving head.”

“At Coachella they really got to shine.” As for the X5 IP Maxx and X5 IP Bars, they were placed inside each of the mushroom-type shapes. “The Bars themselves were mounted from the inside of a pole through the middle of the mushrooms, shooting outwards from the centre, and we mounted the X5 IP Maxx on the outer tips of the mushrooms shooting in. They did all the heavy lifting, illuminating the mushrooms with no uplighting – the mushrooms almost glowed from the inside out.”

It provided a perfect scenario for a star-studded line-up of artists, the DoLaB stage hosting performances from Chase & Status, Alesso, Anna Lunoe and DJ Tennis, plus back-to-back sets by Kaskade and Alison Wonderland and an impromptu party hosted by Billie Eilish.

“We were able to provide the lighting entirely from the GLP catalogue,” confirms the Maktive director in conclusion. “And the fact we were able to match the chipsets meant we got an even homogenous colour.”

Maktive’s Coachella production team comprised Bryan McClanahan (creative director); Jeury Duran (lighting director); Chris Hallet (project manager – day); Ernesto Melendrez (project manager – night); Kylie Woods (creative manager); Nicolai Anderson (lighting drafter); Shane Thompson (master electrician); and Nate Heiderer (video programmer).

Photo credit: Jamal Eid.

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Joe Murray is also a founding director, and they and the team are all big fans of Astera, having first started hearing about the brand a few years back when the neon lighting look was very popular in Australia.

The first Astera products to arrive at Sightline were AX1 PixelTubes that joined the inventory in 2019, a figure that’s now jumped to over 50 fixtures.

In addition to these, they also have AX2 LED battens, AX3 LiteDrops, AX5 TriplePARs, AX9 PowerPARs, as well as the 2 metre Hyperion Tubes and the half metre Helios Tubes, totalling over 200 Astera battery-powered LED products.

These have become invaluable for all types of event scenarios and the continuing commitment has recently seen 2 cases (16 total) of AX3 LightDrops added to stock – joining 80 domes for the AX5s which can be used as set enhancements. They are now looking at Astera’s Fresnel series.

Sightline’s biggest project to date using Astera involved over 200 AX1 tubes that lined an interactive entrance tunnel to an event for software and graphics brand Canva, at The Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Technically Directed by Sightline’s Kim Louey-Gung.

AX1 tubes were also used for the Netflix season launch of the newest Stranger Things series where they – together with other Astera fixtures – help to create an actual “upside down world”.

It’s almost become an in-joke at Sightline in terms of how often AX1s are used, as Astera products are perfect for so many applications and as ultimately useful creative tools, frequently requested on different jobs.

The Sightline team feels the tubes in particular are a brilliant ‘gap filler’ for streamed shows or presentations with cameras and is impressed with the selection of rigging and mounting accessories that come with an Astera package making the lights “super quick and convenient” to deploy pretty much anywhere.

AX3s are super-handy and were recently used on a corporate event fitted to the top of a set piece due to their tiny size, and they are regularly dropped into stage as they are so easily concealed yet have great visual impact.

“Being able to use this many battery-powered fixtures on a show, event or stage set is amazing and so practical… allowing for quick and cable-free looks,” explained Joe.

Mostly the Sightline crew will use the Astera App on an iPad for controlling the fixtures.

The quality of the light output from all the different Astera luminaires “is excellent” notes Adriano, especially the AX5s and AX9s which are frequently used for set and key lighting on stage and in studios. They appreciate the colours, especially the pastels and the warm whites and AX9s can produce an excellent stage wash.

“The batteries will last all day, so combined with the very organic look that blends in so well, the accessibility and incredible versatility of the luminaires – they are good for anywhere and everywhere,” says Adriano.

When LDs, lighting directors, operators or clients know that a company has Astera onboard, “everyone takes you seriously – the name has proper kudos and industry standard status,” he enthused.

On average, Sightline will supply equipment to around 30 projects a month of different sizes, often including the lighting design, and Astera fixtures will invariably be somewhere on the event.

A vital element of investment in any kit is the service expected from the supplier, and Astera’s Australia and New Zealand distributor ULA Group is “second to none. For any busy rental/production company, knowing you have great service, support and backup when needed is all important,” Adriano concluded.

They look forward to continuing their symbiotic relationship with Astera.

Photos courtesy of Sightline. Canva Create. – Produced by The Event Room. Netflix Stranger Things Launch – Produced by INVNT.

The post Sightline Productions keeps Astera in sight appeared first on A1 Lighting Magazine.

Pharos has been working with Lutron to provide integration of Pharos Designer systems with Lutron commercial systems, using Pharos flexible IO modules. The Pharos systems now support integration with Athena; Lutron’s flagship control offering for commercial installations.

The Designer range from Pharos Architectural Controls boasts a wide selection of controllers – including the original and award-winning LPC (Lighting Playback Controller) – to suit any DMX, eDMX and DALI lighting project. 

Integration is now also possible with Lutron Vive and solutions from the Pharos Designer range. Vive is a wireless commercial lighting control system, helping new and existing commercial buildings to be more efficient, comfortable and productive.

To deliver the highest levels of protection, the Athena and Vive integrations are fully secured using Lutron’s LEAP API integration protocol.  

The collaboration will be formalised with the addition of Lutron as a ‘Friend of Pharos’ on the Pharos website. This considered network of manufacturers share the Pharos ethos of putting customers first. Through this approved list, Pharos is able to ensure any integration project will mean customers get the best of two leading companies, without the risk of being sidelined and manufacturers not taking responsibility. 

Bas Hoksbergen, Commercial Director at Pharos Architectural Controls, said: “I am very happy to see the Pharos Designer and Lutron Athena integration now available for all our users. Combining Lutron and Pharos systems gives our users unprecedented control flexibility over both functional lighting, as well as dynamic lighting control.”

The post Pharos and Lutron extend collaboration to integrate more solutions appeared first on A1 Lighting Magazine.

LightShark, a standalone brand from Equipson, is already changing the world of traditional lighting control systems by offering professionals a range of DMX-based hardware consoles that can be accessed and controlled via a web-based interface accessible from any smart device such as Smartphones, Tablets and Computers.

With over 30 years’ experience, DIMATEC imports and distributes some of the world’s leading brands of lighting equipment and accessories for various sectors including cinema, television, video and architecture. The company’s 300m² showroom in Grigny (near Paris) is dedicated to lighting and provides an exceptional facility where the latest equipment can be demo’d.

Commenting on DIMATEC’s appointment, the company’s sales manager Sébastien Caplot says: “Working with LightShark allows us to introduce our customers to the next generation of lighting consoles, which are highly intuitive, compact and powerful. These products absolutely fit this brief and are perfectly sited to this evolution. Our team is already supporting customers and users of the brand and will be providing all product demonstrations in France.”

Juan Jose Vila, CEO of LightShark’s parent company Equipson, says: “We are delighted to be working with DIMATEC as they are ideally placed to support the LightShark product range and continue to grow the brand in France where it is already proving popular with customers. The LightShark range is constantly evolving with new features that are designed to help users have more control over their events. Our aim is to give lighting professionals the tools they need to be much more sophisticated and creative with their light shows.”

The LightShark range includes the LS1, LS CORE and LS CORE iO hardware consoles, the LS WING an expansion module that can also function as a controller for other devices, and the LS NODES, fully configurable multi-function devices that can act as a ArtNet Node, Splitters and DMX512 Merger or Back-up Switcher. These products combine the versatility of a software solution with the ergonomics and ease of use of physical consoles.

The post LightShark appoints DIMATEC as its French distributor appeared first on A1 Lighting Magazine.

As lighting controls specialist Pharos Architectural Controls celebrates its 20^th anniversary this year, the manufacturer has launched a podcast series to spotlight some of the people and projects that have helped to define the company and play a part in its success. In this first release, we focus on the Innovators.

Iain Ruxton from Spiers Major Light Architecture (SMLA), Maria Jenkins from Experience Lighting and Nic Tolkien from Architainment recorded podcast interviews with Pharos, discussing how the world of lighting has changed over the past two decades and the shifting sands that have shaped both their companies and their careers.

Ryan Sainsbury – UK and Northern Europe Regional Sales Manager for Pharos, led the series of conversations, which also included a sit-down chat with Sara Viele from Merlin Entertainment Group to discuss how Pharos products have enabled the transformation of the iconic London Eye from a static landmark to a living embodiment of celebrations, commemorations and of course, New Year’s Eve.

Nic Tolkien – Architainment

The fusion of architecture and entertainment has spurred a huge shift in the lighting industry and with Nic’s background in entertainment – having spent 20 years in the business before forming Architainment in 2003 – it makes sense that he would be one of the innovators in this blend of approaches and applications.

In his podcast episode, Nic explains how architectural lighting was significantly impacted by the creation of colour changing LED luminaires by Color Kinetics and others, and how this opened the floodgates for DMX-based systems that enable colour, transition and more entertainment-based scenes.

Nic explained how it felt to witness this technological shift first hand. “We’d go and see an architectural lighting designer and explain that these single fixtures – with the use of a controller – could change colour. Within a few minutes, we’d have 20 lighting designers from the practice around the table, pointing the fixture at the wall and imagining what they could do with this new gear.

“Now they had a product that could enable creativity and of course, the more creative they got, the more comprehensive the controllers needed to be.”

Nic commented that many lighting designers hailed from theatrical backgrounds and as the revolution of RGB LEDs began to take hold, he could sense an explosion of creativity as designers were empowered to create scenes that moved away from traditional white and really indulged in colourful light.

“The ability to change colour and add a theatrical element when it was available for these designers to specify caused a lot of interest and excitement, although perhaps not all clients were happy to herald in colour and do away with white, which is why the ability to amend scenes from white to colour became so pertinent.

“From Red Nose Day to the birth of a Royal baby, colour has revolutionised the way buildings are used and viewed over the past 12-18 years.”

And so, does Nic have a favourite building that uses these colour-changing technologies to best effect? “The London Eye is one that we were very excited to work on. In terms of a landmark and the statements it makes, it’s fantastic.”

The London Eye

Pharos Architectural Controls play a key role in the lighting capabilities of the London Eye, which is known for its iconic and timely attention-grabbing scenes.

Sara Viele, AV Specialist for Merlin Entertainment Group, explained in her podcast episode, just how integral Pharos kit is: “Several Designer LPCs (Lighting Playback Controllers) are mounted onto the rim of the wheel, with three others across the building. We also use a Designer TPC (Touch Panel Controller) and have recently implemented Pharos Cloud for our marketing and PR, which is an easy interface for use in live activations. It’s a big distributed system but when you plug into the network, you see all of the controllers appear on Pharos Designer.

The interconnectivity of Pharos systems on the London Eye enables a multitude of nuanced uses that has provided Merlin with the opportunity to utilise the Eye as a marketing tool. Sara said: “The colour matching of the system is reliable and means that we can design creative lighting schemes and pre-programme the system to complement a huge range of events – like New Years Eve, film premiers, England football matches and Eurovision.

“The flexibility of the system is great and allows me to create my own lights that may not even be on the system yet, which means the possibilities are endless, and that is always exciting.”

Iain Ruxton – SMLA

Recalling his first contact with Pharos, Iain Ruxton also noted the ‘world of white’ of lighting that he was experiencing as an architectural lighting designer in the early 2000s. “I remember being introduced to the controls at the Business Design Centre and knowing immediately that this kit would solve problems for me. We were doing more colour-change work that we needed to be more kinetic and so required DMX systems, but many of them were very limited in function, or were full-on entertainment systems that required a live operator.

“Fit-and-forget systems were few and far between and as well as being limited, they were clunky. Pharos brought to market a show-based DMX system that could do a whole lot more and was easy to interface with architectural systems. I’ve been using Pharos ever since, specifying hardware that’s scalable, to keep up with client demands.

“The LED revolution changed the game in this industry and there has been a great deal of interest from clients in coloured light and kinetic light. One of the big things that has pushed the scale is undoubtedly the use of pixels. The channel counts and universe counts are through the roof now, which was completely unfathomable a few years ago.”

Iain provided an example in the form of an art installation at Broadgate, near Liverpool Street Station in London: “The installation itself is a 5m circle with a fairly coarse pixel pitch behind a diffused Barrisol fabric.  The content is generated by a PC with custom software by an artist. I used a Pharos Designer VLC to take their output as video signal, lay it onto the grid and pump out the artwork to the pixels. The Pharos kit does the show control, turning on and off, and giving options for local override and to change to fixed colours when required, for example to support a charity or celebrate a particular event.

“It is fantastic and all works really well together, but even that relatively small grid is made up of 42 universes. Projects like this have pushed on the needs from the controllers and Pharos has always come up to meet – and exceed – these requirements.”

Continuing the theme of scalability, Iain goes on to discuss a live project that is currently utilising Pharos Controls: “This is a real one off – not only because we are the lead designer on what is a massive lighting-only project rather than working with an architect or other designer – but also because of its cultural and historical significance.

“At-Turaif is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, considered to be the birthplace of the modern state of Saudi Arabia on the outskirts of Riyadh. Technically, it’s interesting on a number of levels. Due to the sheer size of the site, the system has been designed with multiple Designer LPC-X controllers – we didn’t know how good the local network was going to be or what order lights were going to be installed and commissioned in. Building in that resilience has definitely saved us during an incremental installation and switch-on. We currently have 35,000 channels patched and none of that is pixel. We are talking about individual lights, so it’s a huge scheme.

“Getting the lights patched correctly and working out the dynamic effects has been very challenging and required precise organisation and liaison with the luminaire supplier and installers. I can’t think of another system we could have used to get to where we needed to be in a manageable time frame.”

Iain also noted another key part of the project that presented both the SMLA and Pharos Support teams with a need to learn some new skills:

“Another objective was to script the lighting in line with lunar phases. This is where Pharos really comes into its own. I’ve done a lot of scripting with Pharos previously, but this project required both Ryan Sainsbury and I to learn a bit about astronomy to figure out how to work out whether a given night was the nearest period of darkness to the moment of full-moon. It’s more complicated than it sounds and was a steep learning curve for both of us!

“It was a great example – not only of how of how we can write bespoke coding, which can be exactly tailored to the needs of the project – but also of the collaborative approach and level of support that we as customers receive from Pharos. We can literally access Pharos support at any time of day, from anywhere in the world and that is priceless, when you’re working on site and under pressure. The show-must-go-on mentality really is a gamechanger and sets the Pharos team apart.”

Maria Jenkins – Experience Lighting

Maria’s career in lighting began at university, where she used lighting design in entertainment as a creative outlet while she studied maths and statistics. Following a stint with an installation company, she joined Light Factor in London, where she met Nick Archdale and Chris Hunt of Flying Pig, who went on to establish Pharos. “Our paths crossed several times and after I set up as a freelance consultant, clients needed a control solution that moved with the times, so I was in regular contact with Pharos.”

Maria’s technical expertise, not only with programming, but also with distributing Pharos products has opened many doors for Pharos gear to be integrated into projects – particularly those with an entertainment background.

“The first project where I used Pharos was at Madame Tussauds on Baker Street in London and their kit really fitted the requirements of the project; an attraction that had to run in a specific way, having a complex set of outputs that needed to be achieved. It was prime for a DMX-driven system and with a tight turnaround prior to opening, Pharos was able to step up and meet the brief.

“Pharos has come out of the entertainment industry and the guys have that show-must-go-on mentality, but crucially, they also have a foot in the architectural camp, with the flexibility to integrate with more straightforward DALI-controlled systems; AV smart home and building management systems, as well as the more complex entertainment/colour change requirements. As a programmer and a distributor, this has constantly helped to make my life easier.”

Maria is one of the main distributors for Pharos in the UK, as well as being an experienced programmer. “Many of my clients are in the themed entertainment and attractions space and want to use Pharos for the same reasons I do. It’s quite easy to relay that enthusiasm for the kit. I am still on site, programming, which helps to keep my knowledge fresh and helps customers to see that I trust the product that I am selling to them.”

Maria went on to explain how she integrated Pharos into a recent project at the Printworks in Manchester. “The project started five years ago and the original specification was much more simple and looked very different to how it does now; an immersive colour-change system, integrated with content, over 90 clips that integrate with the lighting. The Designer LPC 4 also runs the facade individually, which is controlled by Pharos Cloud, allowing the client to amend the frontage as needed.”

Ryan Sainsbury from Pharos said: “We always rely on professionals like those spotlighted in this article to feed into our control systems and keep us connected with market requirements. Pharos has continued to grow and innovate in collaboration with companies like Architainment, Experience Lighting and Spiers Major Light Architecture.

“Highlighting some of the people and projects that we admire has been a real privilege and I’m excited for the next instalment of this campaign to celebrate 20 years of Pharos in 2024.”

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The production has also been growing and developing in size and dynamics with Robe iFORTE and BMFL moving lights assisting show and lighting designer Mark Wynn-Edwards to produce a colourful, eye-catching, and emotionally charged show supporting the band’s powerful up-tempo set which is thrilling the crowds.

The show design is new but contains some threads inspired by the 2020 arena tour which was abruptly halted due to the pandemic. Mark has been working with the band since 2018, initially coming onboard to look after media servers.

The tour features 14 iFORTE in the floor package and 3 iFORTE for follow spot duties plus 37 BMFLs in the flown rig which are the main hard edge and workhorse lights of the design. All kit is supplied by Solotech, the complete lighting technical production equipment package provider for lighting, video and sound.

The fourteen iFORTES are deployed on the floor – also part of the floor package that will be touring festivals in the summer. Eight are positioned upstage of the band on top of 7 video carts (also part of the floor package) and the other six are on the stage deck at the bottom of the video carts, also upstage of the band.

This lighting and video ‘low backdrop’ is a concept developed during the previous leg of the tour, with the idea of providing constant back-fill/back-of-shot eye-candy for video and camera recording and photos, rather than a black empty space, and bringing a nice depth of field to the stage.

This televisual approach – worked out precisely in terms of height and other dimensions – features 2 tiles of Roe Vanish screen per cart, and the cart numbers are scalable to fit the performance space or venue.

The iFORTES are perfect for shooting through the band, creating dramatic and powerful silhouettes and for blasting out into the audience and filling the venue ‘void’ spaces (between the ceiling and the top of the audience heads) and for impressive beam work during Simple Mind’s many foot-tapping hits and rock-out moments.

Mark chose iFORTES for multiple reasons including the intensity, the quality of the light output, the vitality and authenticity of the colours, the excellent zoom and focus. This is his first tour using iFORTES, although he’s previously worked with them on TV shows and film shoots. “They tick all the boxes,” he declares.

The other three iFORTES are rigged on the front truss flown in the ‘advance’ position just above the front rows of people and run via a 3-way RoboSpot remote follow spotting system. The RoboSpot system will also be part of the festival package.

The BMFL WashBeams are all in the overhead rig, which has lighting and video ‘pods’ hung on four above-stage trusses.

Five video screens are built into the pods complete with hanging positions for lights, and on the bottom rail of these, Mark can hang two BMFL WashBeams, a strobe and a smaller LED panel light. The truss-hung BMFLs are clustered together in threes, worked extensively and are central to the show.

He frequently shoots these lights out into the audience filling that airspace mentioned above between their heads and the venue roof with colourful and spectacular aerial beams split up with gobos. This is a hallmark of the aesthetic Mark has developed for this show, which is virtually guaranteed to get the energy coming off the stage and out into the crowd every time for the dancey numbers!

Mark has used BMFLs for many years and they have become a rock-solid go-to. While he’s now likely to move to iFORTES in the future, he comments, “BMFLs are still a fantastic luminaire ten years on, and I’m still very happy to use them.”

He fully appreciates the products that Robe is currently producing. “As a manufacturer, they are innovative and very much at the top of their game, which is amazing!” he stated.

The general look and style of the show is a very clean, modern streamlined look with a few nods to late 20^th-century touring stagecraft.

Mark didn’t receive so much input from the band but lead singer Jim Kerr’s brief was quite specific. “He wanted light to hit the furthest physical points in the venue at times and generally to make the whole experience huge,” explained Mark… and that’s exactly what he’s done!

The fragmented video look is also part of Mark’s design, totalling 8 surfaces including the side screens. All of these receive video content commissioned by Mark and band manager Ian Grenfell and produced by John Minton plus the camera feeds which are also directed by John, with Adam Maffatt-Seaman for the European leg.

Originally the screen surface was a ‘blow-through’ product, but a higher resolution surface was utilised for the European tour, which, Mark notes, will likely change for future legs as he really likes the way the blow-through can melt away to invisibility with well-planned lighting.

The challenge was to create a design that was adaptable and would go in and out quickly and straightforwardly, and that was also flexible enough to be able to light up to 140 different songs from the potential ‘pool’ of touring musical content from this incredible band who rolled out hit after stomping hit back in the day!

Mark is thoroughly enjoying the tour finding it invigorating creatively as well as a friendly and positive environment filled with great people… as well as being a massive success.

He is working closely with his lighting crew chief Steve Percy.

Photos: Thorsten Samesch – ToddeVision.

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Immersive Lutron Luxury Experience App unveiled
The Luxury Experience App is a powerful storytelling tool designed to showcase the power of Lutron’s automated blinds, intelligent lighting, and intuitive controls. The app enables users to explore Lutron’s luxury residential portfolio from anywhere, effectively bringing the showroom into the comfort of any room.

“The new Lutron Luxury Experience App has completely revolutionised our ability to communicate the impact of lighting, blinds, and controls to our users. But its power goes even further by giving customers the ability to personalise options to their style and visualise how those options might look in their own home. The app sets a new standard in the industry, and we’re thrilled to expand its availability to over 100 additional countries around the world,” saidMichael Smith, Vice President & General Manager International Sales, Lutron.

One of the standout features of the Lutron Luxury Experience App is its innovative camera functionality, allowing users to visualise Lutron products in any space, seamlessly blending digital elements with reality, facilitating decision-making, and enhancing the overall customer experience.

The Lutron Luxury Experience App introduces innovative features including:

• The shades openness simulator enables users to visualise a range of window blind fabrics and openness factors – even placed over their own window using the iPad’s camera. This capability ensures the selected fabric achieves the optimal balance of outdoor views, light filtering, and privacy in any living space.
• A keypad configurator allows users to customize and preview keypad designs tailored to their preferences and home interior design.

 The Lutron Luxury Experience App is available to download now, compatible with iPadOS 16.4 or later.

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Production values are high on the agenda at TPAC which has around 150 full time employees, a third of whom are designated to work across assorted technical disciplines, including TPAC senior technical officer Yi-Ming Liu (AKA “Birdie”), who explained that Robe’s Spiider was the “most powerful and efficient solution with the best range of authentic colour temperature whites and optimal energy savings for all types of production design”. He was instrumental in picking the Spiiders, together with TPAC’s head of lighting, Pang-Yan Lin Ling, and others from the lighting team.

Sustainability was a major consideration when getting these moving lights, as well as multi-functionality, and this was the basis for them seeking out the best option LED washes.

After careful deliberation, they decided that Robe’s refined LED engine offered the longevity they wanted as well as being the smallest, lightest and neatest units to service their different spaces.

The Spiiders, recently delivered via Robe’s Asia Pacific subsidiary in Singapore, arranged by local Taiwan dealer DLHG run by Jackson Yu, will be used in all three main performance spaces in this bustling producing and receiving house.

TPAC’s impressive and eye-catching contemporary building was designed by David Gianotten and Rem Koolhaas from the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and features different geometrical shapes offering a total space of 50,000 square metres.

The 800-seater Playhouse is sphere shaped, the asymmetrical shaped Grand Theatre has a 1500 capacity, and the Blue Box studio space can accommodate up to 840 and is fully flexible.

The building is owned by the Taipei City Government’s Department of Cultural Affairs and the process of procurement is extremely rigorous.

Knowing the type of luminaire needed to add to the approximately 2000 generic luminaires in place when TPAC opened in 2022 after a 10 year build period, Birdie and the lighting team created a spec for the ideal LED wash beam. The fixture was identified as the most useful addition for fulfilling lighting designs plus saving person-power and time when facilitating productions.

Some of the crew travelled to Robe’s factory in the Czech Republic to see the production process, further in depth demonstrations and to receive hands-on maintenance training.

“We were all impressed with the quality control and the whole set up at the factory,” stated Birdie, noting that many of the lighting designers they are working with still need convincing about the advantages and characteristics of LED as opposed to tungsten and discharge sources.

“So many of Robe’s ranges have been properly designed and finessed with theatrical performance in mind,” he underlined.

TPAC does not have in-house LDs but works with a range of freelancers who are commissioned to light their own productions on a per-project basis and are primarily from Taiwan. International and touring productions will often bring their own designers or lighting directors.

“We also needed a brand of moving light known and respected internationally,” said Birdie, “and Robe also ticked that box.”

TPAC is the first theatre installation in Taiwan to feature Robe Spiiders in the rig, and the technical team – all driven by their passion for performance and dedication to producing great shows – are very proud of this.

Birdie already knew Robe through his touring experiences, but his association goes back around 20 years or so, when he worked at the famous Ministry of Sound superclub in London, which had Robe in the house. He’s observed that Robe has become a favourite with rental companies and installations worldwide, and that the brand has “an excellent reputation” for being a robust, well-engineered creative tool.

He and all the technical team enjoy the interesting mix of shows staged at TPAC, from some of the best Taiwanese dance and performance groups to drama, opera, musicals, a range of dynamic Asian co-productions all the way through to acclaimed international works, all enjoying the same high levels of staging, perfection and expectation that has made TPAC a nationwide production powerhouse under the creative direction of CEO Austin Wang.

The performance spaces are also used for commercial, industrial, business, and special events, presenting constant technical challenges and offering the chance for creatives and technicians to learn and improve their knowledge and experience every day.

“Having Robe fixtures specified for a high-profile site like TPAC with so much potential for groundbreaking staging and presentation that reaches engaged and enthusiastic audiences, is a great honour,” commented Jens Poelker from Robe’s Asia Pacific office.

Taiwan’s rich and diverse performance culture means its need for top-of-the-range luminaires is ideally suited for Robe’s theatrical LED product ranges, and the revered National Theatre has also recently invested in a large quantity of T11 luminaires.

Photo by Louise Stickland.

The post Robe Spiiders for TPAC appeared first on A1 Lighting Magazine.