Europalco, the largest provider of solutions for events and shows in Southern Europe, once again demonstrated its ability to create unforgettable experiences with the recent transformation of Lisbon’s iconic MEO Arena into a realm of sensory delight for the Generali Tranquilidade (one of the largest non-life insurers in the Portuguese market) annual meeting event. Europalco deployed the L-ISA system from L Acoustics for the first time in Portugal to create an immersive sound experience.

The main L-ISA deployment facing the audience.

The event was organised by agency Desafio Global and marked an important milestone in the rebranding of the Tranquilidade brand under Generali Tranquilidade. Europalco implemented an impressive range of audio-visual technologies, scenography and furniture, turning the MEO Arena into an immersive sanctuary for the 3,000 attendees, including employees and business partners from across the country. In collaboration with Desafio Global, the aim was to create an event where sound played a key role in captivating the audience.

Europalco has organised the Generali Tranquilidade event on several occasions; for this year’s event, the Portuguese company deployed a colossal 80m x 12m main screen that was the centrepiece of the event and used 12 x Christie Boxer projectors. To manage the display and handle multiple signals, the company used a Christie Spyder X80 video processor.

The 80m x 12m main screen.

Taking advantage of the most advanced audio-visual technology, Europalco deployed the L-ISA system from L Acoustics, for the first time in Portugal, to create an immersive sound experience, transforming the country’s largest concert hall into a true sonic spectacle.

The immersive journey did not stop there. Europalco installed a total of 144 L-Acoustics speakers (72 Kara, 48 Kiva, 12 SB18 and 12 KS28), strategically distributed (11 front clusters, 2 ceiling clusters and 3 rear clusters) to deliver a captivating audio experience from all angles. The use of L-ISA technology enabled precise spatialization, ensuring that attendees were fully immersed in the audio-visual spectacle.

The 240 tables illuminated and controlled via the lighting desk.

One of the highlights of the event was the integration of LED wristbands, synchronised by radio frequency, which changed colour to reflect the transition from the old green colour to the new Tranquilidade red brand image.
In addition, Europalco’s innovative approach extended to the furniture, with 240 tables illuminated and controlled via the lighting desk, perfectly complementing the visual compositions.

The Europalco team at work inside the Meo Arena.

Europalco’s team of 60 professionals worked tirelessly to bring the event to life, spending two days on meticulous preparation and set-up.
Plus another five days in the studio to test all connections, network and redundancies to prepare the equipment for any failures that might occur, with AVB, MADI and analogue audio protocols.

The team set up a small system to simulate what was going to be in the Meo Arena, with speakers, amplifiers and a Yamaha Rivage PM7 desk with integrated L-ISA system; in order to detect and reduce possible errors so that the set-up would be accurate and flawless.

Some stills and images of the show prep and performance:

The implementation of the L-ISA system was undoubtedly a unique challenge for Europalco. However, through meticulous planning and rigorous testing, the team overcame this obstacle and delivered a flawless experience that exceeded the client’s expectations.

Pedro Magalhães, founder and CEO of Europalco.

The client’s comments speak for themselves. Generali Tranquilidade expressed immense satisfaction, noting that the event exceeded their expectations and perfectly encapsulated the essence of the renewed brand.

Pedro Magalhães, founder and CEO of Europalco, was very pleased with the outcome: “At Europalco, we like to turn ambitious visions into impressive realities.
The success of the Generali Tranquilidade event exemplifies our commitment to excellence in every detail.
Seeing our team’s expertise and dedication translate into a truly immersive experience for our clients and their audiences is incredibly rewarding.”

More information on the L-ISA Acoustics website and on the Europalco website

Finland’s popular TV contest ‘Tähdet, tähdet’ returned for 2024 with a host of singers belting out numbers ranging from 1980s pop to Eurovision classics. Broadcast on Finnish channel Nelonen, audiences watched performances backed by nine Roe Vanish V8T LED screens with live and pre-made content manipulated using tvONE’s Green Hippo brand of Hippotizer Media Servers.

“The set design required visual appeal tailored to the viewers both in the studio and at home,” explains Varpu Sipilä from Finnish visual design company Visual45, which was brought in to create the lighting and visual elements. “Lighting design and operation, as well as video content production and operation, played a significant role. Particularly, the use of video surfaces was emphasized to enhance the atmosphere of the performances.”

On stage, the Visual45 team deployed the nine Roe LED panels, all of which measured 2×3 metres, creating an enveloping canvas. More than 250 Sceptron LED tubes were positioned at the edges and at the top edges of the stage to create a sense of wider space, and more LED tubes were embedded in the judge’s table in a custom structure to reflect the shape of the stage. The Sceptrons were operated in hybrid mode, using a GrandMA2 light console and a Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 Media Server linked to a laptop running ZooKeeper.

The design was led by Tero Kärpijoki from Visual45, whose expertise includes lighting design and visual design for TV productions. “From our perspective, much of the creative work happens during programming, where we make many changes and fixes as we start to see more clearly what the overall picture looks like,” he says.

“Hippotizer enables easy testing and content creation even at this stage. For instance, using effects within Hippotizer is invaluable for programming. Additionally, Hippotizer’s VideoMapper has been a great tool, as manipulating image surfaces can be done both on the Viewport and the Layer level. “Hippotizer is fast and reliable, especially when lights and videos are operated by the same operator, and directing it from grandMA2 is simple.”

Content was created by Visual45’s Motion Graphics Designer Jani Saranpää, designed to complement each performance and drawing inspiration from the songs. The team created the content to act as a whole, with the lighting design in mind, but adapted the overall design to be individually distinct for every singer. In some numbers, live footage from cameras was played back on the screen, fed through the Hippotizer’s live inputs.

“The combination of live camera feeds, pre-designed content, and lighting effects were all carefully coordinated to enhance the overall visual experience,” continues Kärpijoki. “We were proud of creating variation in performances regardless of the musical genre.
The schedules were quite challenging at times, but Hippotizer enabled quick adjustments to visual elements between rehearsals and recordings and helped us create visuals that we could stand behind with confidence. Hippotizer’s absolute strength lies in its ability to quickly and effortlessly stylize and modify different looks. This was incredibly beneficial, especially in this production.”

The Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 Media Servers were supplied by Creative Technology Finland, which also provided the technical execution for the project.

The performers included Finnish singers and entertainers such as Teemu Roivainen, Hanna Kinnunen, Riku Nieminen, and Tidjân Ba, backed by a band led by Risto Niinikoski. The show is produced by Moskito Television.

For more information about Green Hippo, you can visit the Green Hippo website

Renowned lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe recently held a workshop on lighting at the Teatro Ibérico in Lisbon. Patrick is one of the world’s most celebrated lighting designers. For many years, he has artistically illuminated the most famous artists and stars in the entertainment industry on concert stages, in theatres and in television studios.

In the tenth edition of the seminar ‘Lighting The Stars’, Patrick Woodroffe, who has designed the lighting for the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, the London Olympic Games and numerous other events of international significance, shared his most notable and thrilling experiences, including a touching tribute to Michael Jackson, with whom he was preparing a tour mere days prior to Michael’s early demise.

He then proceeded with a unique live practical exercise, in which he created a lighting design for a musical piece chosen without his knowledge, revealing some of the secrets of his art and technique.
The event was organized by SLS, Claypaky’s distributor for Portugal, with the support of Claypaky itself, which was present with an extensive technical and sales team. An audience of 140 people, consisting mainly of lighting designers, entertainment industry professionals, rental company representatives and professional academy students, were entertained throughout the day, with lunch provided by SLS.

Daniele Gamba, Claypaky’s Area Manager for Portugal, said: “Claypaky has served the Portuguese market for many years. We chose Lisbon as the venue for this event to showcase Patrick Woodroffe’s inspiring story — a blend of tradition and the relentless pursuit of innovation, in line with our mission to constantly create new tools that fuel the creativity of lighting designers. During Woodroffe’s workshop, together with our Portuguese distributor, we unveiled our latest and most innovative product lineup, captivating the large audience in the splendid theatre. I thank Rui Nunes and all the SLS staff for their impeccable organization of the day.”

Rui Nunes, President of SLS, said: “We are the first in our industry to host a workshop of this importance in Portugal. Professionals from all over the country attended and saw this meeting as a big event, which I am sure will be talked about for a very long time to come.”

Patrick Woodroffe said: “I very much enjoyed my two days in Lisbon as a guest of Claypaky and SLS and was pleased to have the opportunity to meet colleagues from various parts of the Portuguese lighting community. The Teatro Iberico was the perfect venue for my workshop in that it reflected the deep culture of the country but with the contemporary reconstruction pointing the way to the future!
As I shared the journey of my own career and explored more generally the future of lighting creativity and technology, I felt a real sense of energy and purpose from the audience who were generous and engaged. So thank you to everyone involved in this nice interlude for their welcome, their professionalism and the hospitality they offered. I will be back!

For more info about Claypaky lighting, you can visit www.claypaky.it/en/

The famous and distinctive folded concrete triangular-shaped vaulted ceiling of the CNIT (National Centre for Industry and Technology) building at the La Défense in Paris … has been newly, beautifully, and subtly illuminated with Anolis Calumma XL SC LED luminaires.
This invigorating new lighting project is part of a modernisation initiative led by architect Jean-Luc Crochon of Cro&Co Architecture who approached BOA Light Studio to create a plan to enhance the underside of the ceiling with lighting.

The scheme is designed to bring a ‘living-breathing’ resonance to the structure, pulling the texturing, nuance and luminance of daylight and the sky outside into the shell-like atrium space of the building that now houses multiple shops, retail outlets and offices as well as a hotel and convention centre.

The brief from the client, the Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield management team who manage the property, was to “bring in more light”. The imposing concrete ‘vault’ as it is known, is 46 metres high and each side is 218 meters long, forming part of an equilateral triangle. Three glass façades – with convex curves on two sides – each span 206 meters and allow daylight and sun to stream through into the space.

The roof rises from three pillars, connected to the apex of a triangle beneath the reception hall. Its 6-centimetre-thick double shell is the last intact element of the monumental post-World War II reconstruction period architecture that was characteristic of the initial La Défense building scheme. Inaugurated in 1958, the vault has seen two major renovations, in 1989 and 2009. The new lighting concept chosen to deliver the best results was to illuminate the vault indirectly from the vantage points of all the roofs of the highest offices inside.

“We needed plenty of luminous power to assist with this, and selected the largest Anolis Calumma fixtures, the Calumma XL SC as their 11,000-lumen output gave us the punch needed plus an excellent quality of light,” explained Nedir Benkhelifa of BOA Light Studio.

They wanted to emphasise relief and bring out the sublime and ethereal presence of the vault, noted Nedir, adding that it was more about creating a ‘sensation’ – almost an illusion of light – through ‘luminous presence’, than directly lighting the ceiling surface.
“Light moods are better when perceived. Done right, it’s a psychological phenomenon that improves the overall perception of the place” he noted.

Anolis product specialist Bruno Francois from Anolis France recalled how their request coincided with the launch of Calumma, a new range of LED luminaires ideal for installation projects needing spot, accent, or flood lighting solutions. The fixture’s optical design utilises 37 high efficacy single-chip LEDs, available with optional LED colour variants and various beam angles.

In February and March 2023, tests were undertaken on site with eight Calumma XL SC fixtures that were placed close to the final proposed locations to give realistic results. In two sessions over a period of fifteen days, BOA studio’s lighting designers meticulously measured the levels and observed the effects, an exercise that confirmed several aspects of this indirect lighting idea that were difficult or impossible to gauge using 3D modelling.

From these tests, they selected the fixture’s native 10° beam optics, tweaked the final fixture positioning, validated the imagined colour temperatures, and tested the lighting effect of the linear optics.

The Calumma’s 8-channel control with CT whites and magenta-green colour adjustments allowed the BOA team to quickly and easily refine and perfect the desired shades during the testing.

“It is so simple to create different shades at this stage,” enthused Nedir. “We didn’t require the lighting to be like a disco, or going red for Christmas, etc., so we chose an elegant variable white signature look.”

Following the onsite demonstrations and testing, the Calumma XC SC was confirmed as the best fixture choice for the project, and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield placed the order for the tunable white versions – 2,700 K and 4,000 K – that were manufactured at the Anolis factory in the Czech Republic.
Three rows of 8 x Calumma XC SCs mounted on metal tripods are located on the office roof section ‘islands’ towards the end of each vault arch and as they start to descend. Illuminating the ceiling and creating the textured relief that BOA envisioned, they reveal the grooves, detail, and linearity of the concrete shell by creating soft shadows.

The 1.2-metre-high eye-level stands – in smart graphite black (RAL 9011), manufactured by the installer, Citeos – allow the lighting to be masked from the terrace guardrails on each section. The Calumma bodies are fabricated from die-cast aluminium and rated IP67 and IK10 and are designed to withstand humidity and all temperatures, both outdoors and indoors.
They are programmed into the two shades of white. Nedir decided to work with these warmer tones, avoiding anything too cold, because the concrete is already cold and very raw, so lighting with cooler whites during the testing revealed material defects and colour differences that were somewhat prosaic!

“We created effective ‘slow breathing’ movements of light, as if clouds above are entering the building and we were immersed, playing with these ripples of light similar to the movement of clouds passing in front of the sun and the atmospheric shift you experience when that happens,” he related.

The fixtures are not all on simultaneously. One-third are turned off while two-thirds are working, and sometimes it’s the opposite, with two-thirds off and one-third on. These short sequences maintain a sensation of brightness over a cycle of approximately 15 minutes.

The 24 x Anolis luminaires are controlled via a Pharos system using DMX / RDM. Lumières Utiles handled the control aspect of the project for BOA and programmed a series of preset lighting sequences for the installation.

The lighting is almost invisible from some angles of the CNIT’s inner esplanade, but these imperceptible waves of luminance reveal the ceiling with great simplicity … and empathy, imagination and magic-of-the-mind completes the picture!

For more information about Anolis or Robe Lighting, you can visit www.anolislighting.com or www.robe.cz

The growing Avolites team is delighted to welcome aboard Gonzalo Herranz Gutierrez as a senior product specialist, who will be based in Madrid, Spain, and will be providing comprehensive support related services to Avolites customers and distributors focusing on Europe and Latin America including training new users and their own sales and support staff.

Gonzalo Herranz Gutierrez on the left with Avolites Managing Director Paul Wong.

Avolites MD Paul Wong stated, “We’ve worked with Gonzalo for many years and are absolutely thrilled he’s joining the Avolites global team.” “He brings long lasting relationships, a strong knowledge of the market, and an in-depth knowledge of both Avolites lighting and media products, all of which will be key to helping us continue to grow our international footprint with a specific focus on Europe and South America.”

Gonzalo commented, “I LOVE the Avolites brand! The team is amazing and the traditionally people-focused attitude to business means they stay close to the customers and those all-important grass roots connections. I completely believe in the quality of Avolites products and company philosophy in general. I am delighted to be part of the Avolites universe!”

Gonzalo is a specialist in electronics maintenance and repair and is known for taking the initiative and sometimes finding his own inventive solutions. He believes that the ability to think laterally and creatively as necessary when tackling issues is a great bonus, and there are no ‘problems’ on his event horizon, they are all challenges!

He has loved electronic devices since a child, and all his studies were based on sound, lighting, and video. His first industry experiences were 20 or so years ago, initially when still a student and also working for an audio rental company, as a studio recording technician and sometimes mixing live sound for a metal band, before going to work for Spanish sales company Stonex who distribute some major lighting brands. This is where his interest in lighting and visuals picked up.

He later moved to sales / distribution company Bofill & Asociados and the Avolites relationship started. “Avolites is an internationally recognised brand, it’s one of the top names in lighting control, and while the products are user-friendly and easy-to-learn, they are also complex professional tools that can be used to craft beautiful shows!” he noted.

After this, he joined distribution company EES as an Avolites trainer, co-ordinating support and maintenance, whilst also working with other brands inside of the company. Then it was back to Bofill when they started selling Avo products again, and most recently he worked as an import / export manager and lighting product specialist for Video Cine.

This rounded and varied experience makes him perfect for the new role at Avo. For Gonzalo, working directly for his favourite brand is “an absolute dream – I feel like a child in this moment with a lot to learn in the new role, but this is something I really look forward to.”

He is also relishing sharing his extensive knowledge and experience about Avolites products with more people, illustrating the benefits and creativity that can be unlocked, and enjoying being an integral part of “one of the best teams and brands in the industry,” he declares with characteristic zest.

For more information about Avolites, you can visit the Avolites website

Bandit Lites, Inc. has provided Ayrton Ghibli and Khamsin lighting fixtures, grandMA3 consoles and MDG theONE™ atmospheric generators to lighting designer, Richard “Wookie” Whitley, for Cody Johnson’s Leather Tour and Johnson’s sold-out 360 show at the Bridgestone Arena, Nashville. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton, MA Lighting and MDG products in North America.

Ayrton Ghibli and Khamsin perform for Cody Johnson on tour and in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.

A platinum-selling COJO Music/Warner Music Nashville recording artist, Cody Johnson launched The Leather Tour, with additional festival dates, in January in Sacramento in support of his Leather album released last November. The tour will continue in North America through to the end of the year.
Johnson also played to a crowd of more than 20,000 at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena with his 360 show, staged in a full 360º performance area. His appearance marked the most tickets sold by a male country artist in their Bridgestone debut.

Wookie, who served as lighting designer for Johnson’s Human Tour last year, did the design, gear selection and programming and also acts as the board op for the Cody Johnson Leather Tour and 360 show. He’s a long-time friend of Bandit Lites client rep, Allen Deneau, whose company provided him with the complement of Ayrton, grandMA and MDG equipment.

“Ayrton is one of our premier fixture lines, especially the Khamsins,” says Deneau. “We have used Khamsins on countless tours including Alanis Morrissette, Shinedown and LANY. I know Jason Aldean used 82 of them before Cody, and Billy Strings is out with a large number of them. Ayrton has the fixtures people go to most; they have great colour mixing, great gobos and are very consistent across the line.”

Wookie explains that Johnson’s normal tour rig sticks to the basics. “It’s almost a nice festival plot: simple and to the point, no crazy rigging, just make it punch.” Lighting the 360 show in the huge Bridgestone Arena was much the same – “keep it easy to rig and pack a punch,” he says.

Wookie chose nine Ghibli spot luminaires for the tour and used 60 Khamsin profiles in the bigger rig for the 360 show. “I’ve always kept up with what Ayrton is doing,” he notes. “I’ve used all kinds of brands, and you always plan on some breaking down, but my Ayrton fixtures have all been fine – they’re such workhorses and give me everything I need.”

While last year’s tour had lighting carts, this year Wookie wanted to hide the ground package. “The Ghiblis are mounted in GT truss at the same height level as the drum riser,” he explains. “They give really good aerial effects and cut through everything. I’m extremely happy with them.”

For the Bridgestone appearance, “there was no need for the floor package we carry on tour so Bandit upgraded us to 60 Khamsins for more fire power in that space,” says Wookie. Twelve were positioned on the floor with the rest in the air in dual chevron configurations.
“It was very easy to merge over from Ghiblis to Khamsins: the gobos and colour mixing are almost the same. We had no issues at all, and I was very happy with their output. “I plan to use more Ayrton fixtures in the future; I’ve already told Bandit that I’m pushing for a full Ayrton rig of spots and washes for next year.”

Wookie is a fairly recent convert to grandMA consoles and chose grandMA3 running in MA3 mode for the tour and 360 show. A single grandMA3 full-size console controls lighting for the tour; an additional full-size unit was on hand as backup for the 360 show.

“Pre-COVID I started learning the grandMA2 and during the shutdown I was lucky to have one at home and had the chance to learn more about the system,” he says. “Then grandMA3 came out, and I went head first into it for this year.”

He enjoys using grandMA3 recipes. I had some programming from 360 that I wanted to incorporate with the standard rigging. With recipes I could pick and choose what I wanted and merge them. No issues – they worked like a dream.” He also finds the selection grid “makes my job so much easier.” Bandit Lites’ Deneau notes that grandMA3 is “now moving into a leadership position” among consoles “for its sheer, raw processing power.”

Wookie also began to use a pair of MDG theONE™ atmospheric generators last year, which Deneau calls “the go-to system” for bigger tours. “I was extremely happy with their output in the arenas we were in; at the minimal setting they gave me perfect coverage,” Wookie says.
“Even at festivals, their output was amazing, and the blower fan was exactly what I needed. I had no issues at all with theONEs I used. Bring them out, plug them in, turn them on and they are ready to go!”

This year Wookie has another pair of theONE™s for the tour and the Bridgestone show. “I want the beams to cut through and pop so for the tour and the 360 show I had them on the floor, away from the stage behind everything. They give me a great atmosphere that allow the spots and washes to pop with no plumes of smoke like you see with some other brands.”

More information on Ghibli, Khamsin and the full portfolio of innovative Ayrton LED and laser-sourced products can be found at www.ayrton.eu

A beacon of positive energy and enthusiasm for life and lighting, appropriately named Cape Town based ‘Rainbow Lighting’ was started by freelance gaffer Desmond Gqitekaya in 2020. At the time, he was working mostly on major movies and feature films being shot in South Africa and was lucky enough to also start picking up commercials and music video work through his contacts, for which there was always a demand for thinking quickly and ‘out-of-the-box’ when it came to lighting. This soon led him to Astera.

His first purchase was Astera Helios Tubes in 2022, and this has quickly expanded to also include Astera’s workhorse Titan Tubes, HydraPanels and NYX Bulbs.

He was first inspired to look at the wireless LED brand after seeing other film lighting professionals using them on set and in the studio, and observing how some lighting set ups struggled to make lighting changes quickly and easily which is always a demand, especially on fast turnaround projects where time pressure is a constant challenge.

“The wireless functionality and Astera’s App-based control can make things incredibly fast and adaptable,” he noted, “and they have been a game-changer for my business.”

He thinks that the Astera accessory / fittings packages are brilliantly well thought out to make the kit even more exceptionally handy like diffusers, handles and other basic rigging necessities. He also finds that the lighting fixtures are designed to dovetail perfectly with the DOP choice range of products.

“Whatever the director of photography might want on sight, you can deliver using these lighting products,” he declares, “especially the quality of light and excellent colour mixing, and with the high CRI they are great for close ups just as they are for set dressing and background lighting.” He thinks the ability to run the Astera units wired if desired is another bonus, especially for some scenarios and when the unit is working longer days! “I will be using only Astera going forward.”

The NYX Bulbs he finds “very practical” for providing pleasant soft light in any colour. He notes that whenever Astera is dropping a new product, he will automatically check it out and is now prepared to invest in the brand as a matter of course as he knows it will also be good and there will always be an application.

He’s looking forward to using his latest purchase – a new PlutoFresnel – as soon as it’s delivered by SA distributor, DWR Distribution, one of the country’s leading sales and service companies.

He describes DWR as “Fantastic, very friendly and knowledgeable and so much more than just a service company,” reporting that they also deliver swiftly, which is often important as he needed both the NYX Bulbs and the HydraPanels within 2 weeks of placing the order to go on specific jobs. Often projects are confirmed late in the day as we all know!

Desmond has introduced some of his friends and colleagues to DWR as the service is so good, and he’s also been a great advocate for Astera, with several of his contemporaries investing in lights themselves based on his glowing recommendations.
He started off in the beauty and wilds around Port St. Johns on the Eastern Cape where he initially worked on a documentary. He found the broadcast industry interesting and then jumped straight onto another project and then another and another as things started to snowball, and his aptitude for lighting and illumination shone through.

In 2001, he decided to make the move to the heart of the industry in Cape Town and start a whole new life there … from which he has not looked back! He loves the industry’s family atmosphere, plus the fact that every lighting project is different and challenging offering the chance to learn every day. Moving to Cape Town has opened his eyes to many experiences previously unimaginable.

Rainbow Lighting is Desmond himself at the moment – so he can stay agile and reactive as a business – but for the larger jobs he will train people up to work alongside him for the duration of the project. His Astera kit will go on most of the jobs which has also recently included Japanese Manga series ONE PIECE (project Panda) for which he was Best Boy.

For more info about astera, you can visit Astera Led.com

ColorSource PAR jr is the newest addition to the affordable line of ETC fixtures that has become a staple in venues around the world. A perfect complement to Spot jr, PAR jr boasts a similar feature set and includes a four-color red, green, blue and lime array.

If you’re looking for a flicker-free fixture for broadcast, concert venues, worship services, or live TV, look no further than PAR jr. The fan-free, convection cooled design makes this luminaire ultra-quiet. And at nearly half the weight and half the price of a full-sized ColorSource PAR, PAR jr is ideal for venues of every size.
Offering stunning colors and precise dimming, this wash light is available in two array options. The Original array provides subtle pastels and beautiful white light to enhance skin tones. While the Deep Blue array is for anyone needing more saturated, dramatic colors.

Like all ColorSource fixtures, PAR jr includes ETC’s color integrity technologies so you can be sure the colors you set in rehearsal are the same colors you see during the show. This includes thermal droop compensation and comprehensive factory color calibration.

ETC offers an industry-leading 5-year warranty on the entire fixture, and an astonishing 10-year warranty on the LED array. Pair that with the unmatched 24/7/365 phone support and you’ll be glad you chose ETC.
With almost 2300 lumens of brightness ColorSource PAR jr gives you more of what you love at a fraction of the cost AND a fraction of the size. Download the MyETC: Photometrics app for full photometric and color information on this, and all other ETC fixtures.

Learn more about PAR jr and request a demo at etcconnect.com

As the cornerstone of its 50th Anniversary Season, the Orlando Ballet commissioned a spectacular new production of The Nutcracker, one of the world’s most popular and most performed ballets, which debuted last December.

Billed as “bigger, brighter, and full of surprises” as well as the largest ballet ever created by an Orlando-based performing arts organization, the production was staged in Steinmetz Hall at the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts.

New choreography, all new sets, costumes, and an updated storyline by Jorden Morris, who also serves as the ballet’s artistic director, brought an exciting edge to a timeless classic, combined with a host of interesting and innovative staging elements including a lighting design by Joseph R. Walls.

Robe Forte

Joseph incorporated Robe Forte moving lights and Footsie Led foot lights into his lighting scheme to bring extra vibrance and flair as the onstage action unfolded.

Joseph’s brief from Jorden was to create a fresh and invigorating contemporary look for the show as they presented an extravaganza of color, drama, and emotion to thrill Orlando and mid-Florida ballet lovers now … and for some years to come, as it is scheduled to run for the next 19 years over the festive holiday period.

The 26 x Fortes and 26 x Footsie1s were part of an additional lighting rental package supplied to the Orlando Ballet by Main Light from Delaware and were used in conjunction with the substantial house generic lighting rig.

Footsie1

Additionally, 6 x Anolis Calumma S multi-chip RGBA luminaires were purchased by the Ballet for this show and used for lighting within various scenic elements, proving ideal for offsetting the naturalistic interiors of scenes like the toy shop, pastry shop, and snow globe.

Joseph worked closely with Jorden and set designer Robert Perdziola to craft the show aesthetic. The set combined classic elegant touches with some high-impact operatic elements. The trim heights for productions in the venue are often around 30 feet, but for this one they were 48 feet, accentuating the scale of the scenography and requiring powerful lighting to work from that additional height.

Joseph consulted Main Light account executive Patrick Bellino who first suggested he look at Robe’s Forte as a solution, particularly as a good zoom and excellent dimming were top of the wish list. A demonstration followed which confirmed to Joseph that Forte was the “right fixture for the job.” “I needed a high CRI, a good range of whites, to be able to change colors and gobos, as well as a light source that was essentially clean and soft,” he explained, which is where Partick mentioned that units could be fitted with a heavy frost filter.

Of the 26 x Fortes supplied by Main Light, eight were fitted with the heavy frost, and two of the standard Fortes were run as follow spots, linked to a RoboSpot system operated via two base stations. Five Fortes were positioned on five of the overhead house bars (25 total) effectively replacing a whole ‘traditional’ top lighting system, while the rest were distributed on booms and additional ladders specified for “The Nutcracker”. They were used together with other luminaires from the Main Light rental package and the house rig.

Fortes saved valuable time and enabled Joseph to work quickly during the tech period. “I could not have lit the show with as much detail and complexity in the time without using moving lights,” he noted, also praising the talents and calm demeanor of his programmer, Bridget Chervenka, who worked purposefully and tirelessly through all the surrounding production hustle and pressure.

The 26 x Footsie1s in variable white were positioned along the front of the substantial stage in the standard footlights position. Lighting from these positions, especially for a ballet, has always been problematic as any lighting fixtures will obscure front sightlines, and specifically for those sitting in premium front stalls seats! “For years we have struggled to find fixtures that could be fitted in these positions and work effectively,” he commented, and now Footsie offers a practical solution.

Barely the same height as a standard sprung dancefloor, Footsie can blend seamlessly with the surrounding stage space. For The Nutcracker, Joseph used them to create spooky shadows for puppetry and various other sections of the show, utilizing the fixture’s individual zone control.

Zone control also enabled fluid ripples of light to flicker across the whole stage. The Footsies were used during the battle and other special magical moments when the stage was filled with color, either to denote specific locations, or to balance out shadows with an extra push from that position.
“They were invaluable in so many ways,” he commented, ‘The color, intensity and dimming from that angle were exactly what we needed,” and they were also ideal for highlighting Robert Perdziola’s striking costumes.

The show was a contrast between two worlds, reality, which was more naturalistically lit, and fantasy as the narrative followed a young girl’s love for a favorite Christmas gift from her town’s toymaker. The fantasy environments were energized with an enchanted aura including crispy, white, snowy wonderlands with twinkling lights which the Robe fixtures helped create.

The Fortes and the Footsies were also used to fine-focus on the protagonists onstage, while visual effects, color and textures were layered on and swirled around them.
Joseph appreciated the great teamwork and camaraderie of putting the show together. “It was a massive collaboration and hugely enjoyable,” he concluded.

Also on his lighting design team were associate Matt Taylor and assistant lighting designer Abi Farnsworth, production LX Lizz Pittsely and head LX Mike Boyle, all working alongside a great crew from IATSE 631. The show premiered in December 2023 and ran for 3 weeks and will return in December 2024.

For more info about Robe Lighting, you can visit the Robe Lighting website

‘Raffa in the Sky’ is a tribute opera to the iconic figure of Raffaella Carrà, a prominent Italian TV personality also renowned internationally. It is the story of an artistic career that not only evolved with the changes in Italian society over the last half a century but occasionally inspired them.
Through Carrà’s extraordinary experience, the work also aims to reflect on the artist’s role in society, the value and use of art, and the role of television and other media, not forgetting the songs she performed. The narrative transcends into the surreal and paradoxical to strike a chord with us all.

Show lighting designer Alessandro Anderoli told us: “As soon as I was appointed as LD for ‘Raffa in the Sky’, I started thinking about the kind of light and therefore which units to use for this rig. There are two main reasons why I preferred Claypaky. First, because of the quality.
Through my experience of working on four operas directed by Francesco Micheli, I’ve come to understand his need for frequent shifts in lighting to vary lighting conditions and create different directorial strata. His productions are highly dynamic.
Right from the first scenic sketches, it was clear that the two to three main alternating stage scenes would require different approaches. Hence, the decision to use Claypaky lights which allowed me to exploit nearly all the features of each fixture to their full extent.

Second, my choice was influenced by emotional and practical reasons: I have known Claypaky for over twenty years and used their lights for various events like theatre productions, summer shows and ceremonies. I have always found the right light in their catalogue, along with utmost reliability.

The Fondazione del Teatro Donizetti has been working with Claypaky for over a year, and there was a mutual desire for a Bergamo-based partnership. Moreover, the Claypaky technical team have always solved our problems promptly when needed. This is an absolute linchpin for me.

Alessandro Andreoli then elaborated on the role of the Claypaky Sinfonya Profile during the show: “Its unique value in this opera lies in its main feature, the ability to vary the colour temperature of the LED engine, along with the light’s extraordinary technical performance across all parameters.

From the beginning, it was clear that the Italian national broadcasting company (RAI) was going to film the opera, and the Sinfonya Profiles enabled me to confidently program the fixtures during rehearsals, knowing that I could later optimize the effects without drastically altering them once we were joined by the technicians for the shoot. They had specific colour temperature requirements for balanced in-camera images.
In addition to the Sinfonya Profiles, the lighting rig also included 10 Claypaky Xtylos units, 6 Claypaky Sharpy-X-Frames, 16 Tambora Flash fixtures, 4 B-EYE K25s and 12 Midi-B WWs.

Referring to the Xtylos units, Andreoli told us that “the director was looking for a lighting effect that could both emulate a ‘heavenly ray’ for Raffa’s entrance and simultaneously represent a ‘cage’ as the narrative unfolded.

We tried various options including the use of fibre optics and LED strips on frameworks, but it was when we saw the Xtylos in action that we immediately realized we had the solution. It was the perfect fit for us with its powerful, concentrated beam, zoom capabilities and gobos.

Sharpy X Frames were used as backlighting on the backing singers’ podiums, and one was placed upfront to create a spotlight effect. “I placed five of them to backlight the backing singers because we needed a different light for when the podiums appeared, since they were on a different physical and directorial level.
Discharge lights served this purpose well. The potential to shape them led to that part of the stage being illuminated in its own unique way. One final X Frame was tentatively used as a followspot and, as the rehearsals progressed, it turned out to be a brilliant choice.”

The use of the powerful, hybrid Tambora Flash units, which can operate simultaneously as strobe lights, washlights and blinders, was very distinctive. Andreoli continued: ‘These lights were a real gamble. I was looking for a fixture that physically resembled a 1960s/70s/80s TV studio ceiling light, which was what set designer Edoardo Sanchi envisioned for the stage space.

Obviously, I needed a fixture that also had colour changing capabilities to adjust the tone of the fixed units and that provided enough light to support the scenes.
We slightly angled the Tambora Flash beams for backlighting so that the four lamps were clearly visible, which turned out to be the right choice.
I spoke of a gamble because this unit was designed as a blinder, as its name implies. However, I wanted to use it in a non-conventional way, and I must say it surprised me. The two strips of strobe lights left us awe-struck by the amount of light they produced.”

The Midi-Bs were used as space-filling washlights. Eight were mounted on the battens on stage, two in the auditorium to support the front-lighting, and the last two as sidelights in front of the curtain, one on each side. The latter are essential in supporting all proscenium scenes with the frame folded down due to the compact size of the light itself.

Lastly, there is an interesting story behind the use of the four K25 B-Eyes. During rehearsals, it was decided to perform the second scene of Act II in the stalls with all the soloists wandering around the audience. Andreoli revealed that ‘having already installed all the available units on the battens and brackets, there was a clear need for something extra and special.
Claypaky came to our rescue by providing us with these additional lights which, thanks to their power and zoom range combined with their capability to project videos on the curtain, created a magical, cinematic spectacle. The K25 was the right light for the purpose.”

Andreoli concluded: “I would like to thank the entire Claypaky team, and especially Alberico, Daniele, Giulia and Sandro for the support I have received from the very beginning of the project, which goes back several months before the staging.”

Massimo Boffelli, General Director of the Fondazione del Teatro Donizetti, emphasized that “the Fondazione del Teatro Donizetti is very proud to work with Claypaky. Our partnership brings together two internationally acclaimed Bergamo-based organizations and allows directors and lighting designers to express their creative ideas fully, even in the case of unique and experimental projects like ‘Raffa in the Sky’. We are confident that our alliance will continue in the coming years, touching new aspects of the Fondazione del Teatro Donizetti’s programme and events.”

Claypaky Sales Director Alberico D’Amato said: “We are proud to provide our most advanced technology to the Teatro Donizetti, which has always been an institution for the people of Bergamo and a global benchmark in the theatre world. Our company has provided top-ranking lighting products for a large number of entertainment sectors worldwide for nearly fifty years but has always had strong roots in the Bergamo area with which it shares the proverbial industriousness and attention to quality craftsmanship.

We would like to thank the General Director of the Teatro Donizetti, Massimo Boffelli, the President of the Fondazione, Giorgio Berta, and the head of stage set design, Sergio De Giorgi for making the partnership between our two renowned Bergamo-based organizations possible”.

For more information about Claypaky lighting fixture, you can visit the Claypaky website

Throughout February 2024, German Rap artist, Luciano, worked his way across Germany, Switzerland and Austria on his Seductive tour. One of the first German-speaking rappers in the UK Drill style, Luciano was Germany’s most streamed artist on Spotify in 2022 and deserves nothing but the best for his music and outstanding live shows.

80 Ayrton Cobra fixtures were duly supplied by TDA CLAIR GmbH for this year’s tour and they proved to be a brilliant success for the show.

Cobra is Ayrton’s first IP65 laser-sourced fixture. Designed for rendering a D65 white point that allows perfect colour reproduction, Cobra has an incredible output of 386,000 lux at 20m, an unprecedented 38x zoom ratio and an incredible zoom range of 0.6° to 23°. It also sports a highly innovative colour section, unrivalled graphics capability and continuous pan and tilt.

The Cobra fixtures were specified by Stop Making Sense’s Timo Martens who created the lighting design for the tour with great support and cooperation from Bertil Mark (also from Stop Making Sense), and Raphael Demonthy.

The Stop Making Sense design collective was responsible for the entire realization of the stage, the lighting, the content production, as well as the programming and supervision of the project.

Martens explains why the Cobras were chosen for this tour. “In order to create the greatest possible impact with the lamps, so that we could practically make backdrops out of light, we needed a moving light that would provide maximum output with a low weight and a great CMY colour mixing. We compared a lot of moving lights and finally decided on the Ayrton Cobra, which we have not regretted.”

48 Cobra units were rigged around a specially made 10m circular truss upstage and 16 Cobra fixtures lined the catwalk. “The Cobras in the circle were primarily there to draw shapes and lines in space,” explains Martens.

“The basic idea was to create backdrops of light that extend across the entire width of the venue, or to be able to create a tunnel of light that extends through the whole venue, no matter how large it is.
We placed the remaining Cobras on the stage to use as floor lamps to provide additional options that gave the show even more variety.”

The technical team and lighting designers were extremely pleased with the overall performance and versatility of their choice of light. “In the end, it was a very good decision to put our trust in the Cobras, because the concept worked out perfectly,” confirms Martens. “We didn’t have a single breakdown on the entire tour. The Cobra light beams looked sensational and we have never regretted our decision.”

There was praise too for the service and back-up from both supplier and manufacturer: “We have always received friendly, excellent support from Ayrton and are very happy with such good cooperation. However, because the Cobras were so reliable, we didn’t have to put too much strain on customer support! TDA Clair always had an open ear for us and left nothing to be desired. We felt well looked after and supported at all times. Special thanks also to Captured Live for their trust in us, as they were responsible for production management and implementation.”

For more information on Ayrton Cobra and Ayrton’s full range of LED and laser-sourced lighting fixtures, visit www.ayrton.eu