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IMS Dalt Vila 2026 illuminated with Elation
26/05/2026
We Belong Here festival lit with Chauvet
25/03/2026
Burj Khalifa NYE event lit with Robe
24/02/2026
Industrieareal mittels Breakout-Räumen und Akustikwänden von HMS Design Solutions als Konferenzlocation genutzt
Für ein Strategie-Meet-Up im April 2026 hat HMS Design Solutions eine Industriehalle in eine Eventlocation transformiert. Rund 400 Teilnehmer, 26 Speaker sowie zahlreiche Partner und Aussteller kamen für eineinhalb Tage zusammen, um gemeinsam an strategischen Themen und zukünftigen Entwicklungen zu arbeiten.
Das übergeordnete Raumkonzept, das die Halle in unterschiedliche Funktionszonen gliederte, wurde durch den Veranstalter definiert; die Umsetzung zentraler Elemente wie Plenumsbereich, Auditorium sowie Partnerflächen und Networking-Zonen übernahm HMS. Das Unternehmen realisierte unter anderem Breakout-Räume (eigenständige, physische Nebenräume innerhalb größerer Veranstaltungsflächen, die für kleinere Gruppenformate wie Workshops, Diskussionen oder Strategie-Sessions genutzt werden können).
Im Fokus des Strategie-Meet-Ups standen drei Breakout-Räume mit jeweils rund 140 Quadratmetern Fläche innerhalb der bestehenden Hallenstruktur, die als Plattform für parallele Strategie-Meetings und Präsentationen dienten. Zum Einsatz kam unter anderem ein in der Entwicklung befindliches Akustikwandsystem, das räumliche Struktur schuf und durch seinen mehrschichtigen Aufbau zur Schallabsorption beitrug. Das von HMS konstruierte System wurde erstmals in diesem Umfang eingesetzt.
Mittels der genutzten HMS-Systeme konnten Wandflächen individuell bedruckt und gebrandet werden, um funktionale und visuell prägnante Räume mit klarer Markenführung zu realisieren. Für eine optimierte Nachhaltigkeit sind sämtliche HMS-Elemente modular aufgebaut und vollständig wiederverwendbar. Als Mietprodukte für temporäre Veranstaltungen konzipiert, sollen sie einen ressourcenschonenden Einsatz über mehrere Events hinweg ermöglichen und den Material- sowie Produktionsaufwand reduzieren.
Die Breakout-Räume boten ca. 17,5 x 8 Meter Grundfläche bei 2,5 Metern Höhe, fünf integrierte Zugangslösungen pro Raum und insgesamt rund 155 laufende Meter Wand (ca. 400 Quadratmeter Fläche). Neu entwickelte Netzwerktische von HMS dienten als Präsentationseinheiten für Partner und Aussteller. Ausgestattet mit jeweils zwei integrierten Screens und intelligenter Verwaltungssoftware, ermöglichten sie eine flexible Nutzung im laufenden Betrieb. Inhalte konnten automatisiert gesteuert werden, beispielsweise durch das Abspielen von Stand-by-Visuals bei getrennten Endgeräten. Diese Einheiten waren zentraler Bestandteil der Eventkommunikation vor Ort und rund um die Plenumsfläche.
Zur ganzheitlichen Aufwertung der Eventfläche wurden rund 1.800 Quadratmeter Teppichboden verlegt. Neben der visuellen Strukturierung der Halle habe dabei laut HMS vor allem die akustische Optimierung eine entscheidende Rolle gespielt. Gemeinsam mit den eingesetzten Akustiksystemen sei so eine deutlich verbesserte Aufenthalts- und Kommunikationsqualität innerhalb der großvolumigen Industriearchitektur entstanden. Die Realisierung des Projekts erfolgte innerhalb eines Zeitfensters mit drei Aufbautagen und einem Abbautag.
(Fotos: HMS Design Solutions)
Mexico’s Estadio Azteca reopens with assist from Obsidian Control Systems
All eyes will be on Mexico City on June 11 as the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off at the newly renovated Estadio Azteca, recently renamed Estadio Banorte. A reopening event and friendly match were held on March 28, with lighting control managed on Obsidian Control Systems’ NX consoles by lighting designer and Lightshow de Mexico director Giovanny Garrido.
Garrido’s relationship with Obsidian Control Systems dates back to the introduction of the M1 console to the market. “At the time, we were the first in Guadalajara to have this console, and after fifteen years of use, it’s still going strong on some of our projects”, he states. In recent years, he has acquired an Obsidian NX4 lighting console and Netron data distribution devices for ArtNet from Elation Professional Mexico. “Since discovering the Onyx software that Obsidian uses, I’ve preferred working with these systems”, he says.
For the inauguration of Estadio Banorte, the designer used two Obsidian Onyx lighting consoles to control the lighting setup - a compact NX2 and an NX4 with expanded control surface - with one unit on the field and the other at front of house. “Having both consoles was vital for setting up pre-lights on the field and observing what was happening from the television broadcast angles.”
In the control area, another console monitored data transmission, where Systems Engineering Manager Tomás Novoa used several fiber optic-to-network converters from the field to the control area. For this, Obsidian’s Netron EN4 and EN12 EtherDMX gateways were essential for data distribution. All Obsidian products were provided for the reopening event by Lightshow de Mexico.
(Photos: Obsidian Control Systems)
Chauvet Professional illuminates Levity at Wintrust Arena
Ryan Warffuel and the team at Antic Studios had an ambitious creative vision for the show they planned for Levity at Chicago’s Wintrust Arena, an effort involving 330 FB4-level lasers controlled over a network of nine laptops, along with sixty Chauvet Professional Color Strike M motorized strobe-washes.
Antic Studios, along with its collaborators, LEC Event Technology and Slick Lasers, transformed the 10,000-plus capacity downtown venue into a vortex of light and color that worked in harmony with the music of the hardcore bass trio as they performed on a 360 stage.
“This was a 360 show in an arena with many very different asymmetrical levels”, says Warffuel. “So, our main challenge was to shoot lasers safely in every direction to cover the entire arena space while still looking cohesive. To achieve this, we shot the lasers in and across the arena, out from the center towards the crowd, up and around the ‘Lasership’, and even had some crowd scanning lasers shooting into the audience. This took a lot of careful placing, zoning, and planning the different looks.”
Warffuel and his team also put a lot of thought into where they positioned their Color Strike M fixtures, which were supplied by Antic Studios, with additional lighting units, along with audio, rigging, power, and networking from LEC Event Technology. The majority of lasers were furnished by Slick Lasers with additional lasers supplied by Antic Studios and Levity. “We made sure to have plenty of them placed at great viewing angles so they could all be seen easily”, explains Warffuel. “The tilt function is useful in this situation, so we can adjust them to all the different levels of the arena.”
“Strike Ms are great for a show like this”, he continues. “They are able to cut through all the lasers, but they also are pixel mappable, giving lots of programming options to complement the lasers at the same time. We made sure to program lighting, lasers, and video, to play off each other, and give each element their time to shine without having to fight each other. We needed extensive planning and practice to hit the specific cues.”
“We wanted to make sure we didn’t use all the different looks and FX/tricks right away in the beginning and brought them in throughout the set to make sure it kept evolving and felt fresh”, notes Warffuel, who adds that the team - including Alyssa Miller (Video Director/VJ/Cameras), Owen Howell (Lighting Director/LD), and Corbin Sharpe (Laser Director/Operator) - strove to ensure that the audience was “fully engaged throughout the whole set.”
(Photos: Chauvet Professional)
Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club takes Ayrton Rivale Profiles “Into The Woods”
Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club’s production of the Stephen Sondheim classic “Into The Woods” was performed in March 2026 at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge. The Lent term musical is the highlight of the ADC Theatre year, and the most demanding project in its repertoire.
“Into The Woods” is a fast-moving melange of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales of “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Rapunzel” and “Cinderella”, and the English tale of “Jack and the Beanstalk”. It starts as a light-hearted piece that follows the characters in their search to make their wishes come true, but transfigures into a darker tale in Act II that reflects the consequences of such actions.
The show requires a big stage for the large cast and a multitude of locations, but the ADC Theatre stage measures just 8 m x 6 m and the set never changes, so it was the job of lighting designers Angus Cha and Eloise Davis to convey the different parts of the forest and changes in mood with lighting.
To achieve this, the duo used Ayrton Rivale Profiles as their moving lights on the recommendation of Ayrton’s Briony Berning. “We needed a fixture that was compact yet powerful because the grid is so small but the demands of the production called for ultimate versatility”, says Davis. “We requested Ayrton Rivale or Stradale Profiles for their size, and found the Rivale Profiles to be punchy, powerful fixtures which fitted in very neatly.”
“For Act I we focused on the whimsical, comedic aspect of the play, using bold, block colours and bright ‘sunlight’ to create the unreal world of the conventional fairy story”, explains Cha. “We picked our palette to reflect the set and costumes, and had fun creating a big bold burst of colour as the cast first enters the forest, setting the tone for the whole act.”
“The lighting was very ‘front on’, compared to Act II when we introduced greater contrast, more muted colours and lots of textures to make the Woods seem threatening and confusing”, continues Cha. “Rivale’s colour palette gave us all we needed in terms of the saturated and subtle colours for the full range of moods and locations we wanted to represent.”
Most of the Rivale Profiles were used as top light, rigged asymmetrically on the grid to force unconventional lighting angles. Another two Rivale Profiles set on the floor in the downstage wings provided strong side light which helped avoid plain front light and enhanced sunset and dawn effects. The remainder were rigged downstage for face light or upstage for back light and gobo effects.
“We could make full use of the gobos to create the many dappled effects and textures that were vital to the show’s ambience, especially in Act II where we could play with shadows and give the impression of the cast moving through a forest that was much bigger than our actual set”, says Davis. “The lighting positions gave us plenty of options to focus in on specific areas or widen out to encompass the whole stage and direct the audience’s attention in a subtle way, changing the landscape with light.”
“A lot of our design relied on delivering a sense of movement which we did using live positional changes to track characters across the stage, transporting them from one ‘location’ to another”, confirms Cha. “It is quite unusual to have live movement for moving lights in theatre, but worked well. The effect really enhanced the sense of changing location in a static set.”
“Another fun but significant part of the show was how to portray the approach of the giant’s footsteps”, notes Davis. “We used Rivale’s ‘gobo shake’ feature, and gradually focused down on the cowering group of characters while increasing the intensity of the shake - the effect was superb and very dramatic.”
“Productions like this are fun and important, nurturing the talents of the lighting designers of the future”, concludes Berning. “It was my absolute pleasure to support Angus, Eloise and their team and look forward to seeing their future productions. They have a bright future ahead of them.”
Alongside Cha and Davis, the “Into The Woods” team included director Toby Trusted, musical director Collier Ow, producer Eva Ilieva, technical director Jenna Braban, set designer Abigail Lemans, costume designer Edith Howe, puppet designer Nina Winstone, and sound designer Reuben Karas.
(Photos: Anna Gungaloo)
Dick Brave mit ETC-Tour-Hog-Lichtsteuerkonsole auf Tour
Lichtdesigner Rolf Wenzel nutzt eine ETC Tour Hog für die laufende Tournee von Dick Brave, dem Rockabilly-Alter-Ego von Popsänger Sasha. „Im Fokus des Lichtkonzepts stehen vier mit 220 Glühlampen beleuchtete Großbuchstaben: DICK“, erläutert Wenzel. „Der Rest herum ist überschaubar: Unterlicht, etwas Seitenlicht - das war’s auch schon.“
„Ich habe mir angeschaut, was in den 1950er- und 1960er-Jahren so üblich war“, fährt er fort. „Dieses Retro-Feeling wollten wir auch generieren - und das ist uns gelungen.“ Zum Einsatz kam dabei die neue Tour-Hog-Konsole von ETC. Wenzel steuert die Show komplett manuell, ohne Timecode oder MIDI-Unterstützung. „Die Band hat eine wilde Energie, die Tempi wechseln ständig“, sagt er. „Genau darauf spontan reagieren zu können, macht den Reiz aus.“ Entsprechend wichtig sei ein schneller, direkter Zugriff auf alle Funktionen.
Gearbeitet wird mit einer festen Song-Struktur: Für jeden Titel legt Wenzel eigene Pages an, zwischen denen er sich während der Show bewegt. Ergänzt wird dies durch eine sogenannte „Template Page“, auf der alle essenziellen Funktionen dauerhaft verfügbar bleiben - etwa Seiten- und Unterlichter oder grundlegende Looks. Dadurch könne der LD jederzeit auf wichtige Parameter zugreifen, auch bei kurzfristigen Änderungen im Ablauf. Die übrigen Fader nutzt Wenzel flexibel für songspezifische Effekte, Farbwechsel oder spezielle Looks für die beleuchteten Buchstaben.
Trotz wechselnder Venues benötige er meistens nur rund zwanzig Minuten, um die Konsole an die jeweilige Bühne anzupassen, sagt Wenzel. Dabei nutze er auch vorhandene Hauslicht-Systeme, vor allem Blinder und Frontlicht für die Interaktion mit dem Publikum. „Der große Dick-Brave-Schriftzug ist so effizient, dass die Bühne selbst ohne klassisches Gegenlicht immer Tiefe behält“, so Wenzel.
(Fotos: ETC/Rolf Wenzel)
IMS Dalt Vila 2026 illuminated with Elation
In late April 2026, the 17th edition of the International Music Summit opened the Ibiza summer season at IMS Dalt Vila, transforming the UNESCO World Heritage site into one of the most visually striking stages in electronic music. The Shop Productions delivered full production for the event and once again turned to Elation lighting gear to illuminate the show.
Set within the historic walls of Ibiza’s old town, the location hosted a lineup including Pete Tong, Eliza Rose, Ahmed Spins, Ankhoi, and a live closing performance from Faithless Sound System. From initial planning through to final execution, The Shop Productions team managed every aspect of the build and technical delivery, working within one of Ibiza’s most complex and protected environments.
“Dalt Vila is not a conventional venue, and producing at this level requires a precise balance between creative ambition and structural discipline”, says Simeon Friend, Founder/Owner of The Shop Productions and Founder & Creative Director of International Music Summit. “The stage and technical systems were designed to integrate seamlessly into the historic surroundings, while supporting a high-impact performance environment for internationally recognized artists. Every element - from rigging to lighting, audio, and show control - was executed with complete coordination and control.” The Elation gear which was provided through AdagioPro, the exclusive distributor for Elation products in Spain.
For IMS Dalt Vila 2026, The Shop Productions once again worked alongside lighting and visual designer Nick Jevons. With extensive experience across international stages, Jevons brought a clear and structured approach to the lighting design, aligning closely with the technical setup and production requirements of the show. His work aimed to translate the scale and energy of the lineup into a cohesive visual output.
The Elation system was built around Rebel Profile fixtures, providing a technical backbone with CMY color mixing, variable CTO, high CRI output, and a full effects package including rotating and fixed gobos, prisms, frost, and framing shutters - allowing for controlled beam shaping and layered textures across the stage. “At the heart of the design, the Rebel Profile delivered crisp aerial effects, allowing us to sculpt the space with striking definition even in an open-air environment”, Jevons states.
“Complementing the Rebel fixtures, the Proteus Radius brought a new layer of versatility and resilience”, he adds. Used to extend the visual reach beyond the stage itself, the Proteus Radius fixtures delivered sharp, long-throw aerial beams using laser-driven light sources, enhanced by fast 360° continuous rotation, CMY color control, and effects such as prisms and gobos - creating bold, architectural beam structures across the skyline.
“To amplify audience connection, we integrated the SOL 1 Blinders, creating warm, immersive moments that bridged the gap between performer and crowd”, Jevons continues. “Its output and dimming curves gave us the ability to shift seamlessly from subtle ambiance to full-impact hits.” Pulse Panel FX units introduced a dynamic visual layer, combining high-output strobe, wash, and continuous pan/tilt movement to create rhythmic energy and evolving stage compositions. “Together, these fixtures formed a cohesive system that balanced power, precision, and atmosphere”, says Jevons.
(Photos: Leafhopper Project/Phrank.net/Juan Sabatino)
GLP JDC Burst 1 unterstützt „Orange the World“ am Karlsruher Turmberg
Am 25. November 2025 erstrahlte der Turmberg in Karlsruhe in kräftigem Orange. Die weithin sichtbare Illumination war Teil der internationalen UN-Kampagne „Orange the World“, mit der weltweit ein Zeichen gegen Gewalt an Frauen gesetzt wird.
Auftraggeber der Aktion am Turmberg war der DM-Drogerie-Markt, der sich im Rahmen der Kampagne mit mehreren Illuminationen beteiligte. Die vollständige technische Planung und Umsetzung übernahm die Hell begeistert GmbH. Die Wahl des Illuminationsobjekts auf den Turmberg. Neben der Illumination des Turmbergs wurde im Zuge von „Orange the World“ auch das DM-Headquarter orange beleuchtet. Bereits im Vorjahr hatte Hell begeistert zudem das DM-Verteilzentrum in Waghäusel illuminiert, dort mit rund 100 GLP FP7.
Für die Umsetzung am Turmberg setzte Hell begeistert zwölf der neuen GLP-Hybrid-Strobes JDC Burst 1 ein, ergänzt durch weitere Scheinwerfer. Sechs JDC Burst 1 wurden bodennah so positioniert, dass sie die südwestliche Seite des Turms vollständig ausleuchteten. Weitere sechs Geräte kamen auf der unteren Aussichtsplattform in rund sechzehn Metern Höhe zum Einsatz und waren nach Nordwesten ausgerichtet, um insbesondere die oberen Turmbereiche in gleichmäßiges, sattes Orange zu tauchen. Durch diese Staffelung ließ sich die Geometrie des Turms flächig und ausgewogen illuminieren.
„Zwar haben wir die JDC Burst 1 ursprünglich nicht für klassische Architekturbeleuchtungen angeschafft, dank ihres IP-Schutzes und der großen Abstrahlwinkel eignen sie sich jedoch hervorragend auch für solche flächigen Außenanwendungen“, sagt Nikolai Stefansky von Hell begeistert. Die Geräte aus dem eigenen Bestand von Hell begeistert werden regelmäßig bei Musik- und Kulturveranstaltungen verwendet, etwa als Stage-Wash, als Strobe oder für kreative Effekte mit der Single-Pixel-Strobe-Line. Auch bei Industrie-Events sowie für Kameraaufzeichnungen und Livestreams kommen die JDC Burst 1 zum Einsatz.
(Foto: Nikolai Stefansky/Hell begeistert)
„Mord auf Ex“ mit Equipment von MA Lighting, Martin Lighting und Major auf Tour
Das wöchentlich erscheinende True-Crime-Format „Mord auf Ex“ der Journalistinnen Leonie Bartsch und Linn Schütze zählt zu den Top-10-Podcasts in Deutschland und erreicht monatlich über fünf Millionen Abrufe. Im Januar 2026 spielte „Mord auf Ex“ den zweiten Teil seiner aktuellen Live-Tour, die insgesamt über 100.000 Besucher in sechzehn Städten im DACH-Raum verbuchte.
Mit auf Tour waren fünfzig IP54-klassifizierte Mac-Viper-XIP-Moving-Lights von Martin Lighting. Groh-P.A. Veranstaltungstechnik zeichnete als Full-Service-Dienstleister für die gesamte Technik verantwortlich und stellte das Material. „Der Live-Podcast war eine Mischung aus Theater, Show und Konzert. Entsprechend vielseitig musste die Technik sein, um allen Anwendungsfällen gerecht zu werden“, sagt Fynn Heidutzek, Head of Lights und Projektleiter.
„Der Mac Viper XIP war genau das, was wir bei dieser Produktion benötigten, denn er übernahm einfach alles: Er illuminierte das ganze Set und setzte als Key-Light mit seinem Weißlicht die Gesichter der Protagonistinnen in Szene“, ergänzt Lichtdesigner Maximilian Gräf. „Zusätzlich überzeugte er mit präzisen Beam-Looks. Dank ‘Light-Recycling’ hatten wir auch beim Einsatz von Blendenschiebern einen hervorragenden Output.“
„Light-Recycling“ ist eine Technologie aus dem Hause Martin, die es durch das Zusammenspiel der LED-Engine mit dem optischen System ermöglicht, hohe Anteile des intern reflektierten Lichtes zu nutzen und auf diese Weise den Licht-Output zu steigern. Über das „Light-Recycling“ kann beim Mac Viper XIP der Output beim Einsatz von Gobos, Blendenschiebern oder Iris noch einmal um bis zu 25 Prozent gesteigert werden.
Gesteuert wurden die Shows mit einem GrandMA3-System, bestehend aus zwei GrandMA3-Light-Konsolen, zwei GrandMA3 Compact sowie fünf GrandMA3 onPC 8Port Node 4k PoE. Zudem wurden ausschließlich Stromverteiler und Kabel von Major verwendet. „Groh-P.A. arbeitet nur mit GrandMA3. Für verschiedenste Anwendungsfälle haben wir uns mit GrandMA3 Compact, GrandMA3 Light und GrandMA3 Full-Size ausgestattet“, so Heidutzek.
(Fotos: Auf Ex Productions)
Naostage K System drives dynamic stage automation on Tiakola tour
When planning the visual identity for one of French rapper Tiakola’s recent tours, the creative team behind the show sought to build a stage environment that could evolve continuously throughout the performance. At the centre of that design was the Naostage K System, the world’s only beaconless performer tracking ecosystem that enabled lighting, video and automation elements to respond dynamically to the artist’s performance and the stage architecture around him.
The scenography and lighting design for the production were led by Julien Peyrache and Michael Berzon of Alien le studio, who were brought into the project by Nonstop Productions. Early discussions with producers Morgan Antonutti and Marie-Sandrine Martin focused on creating a highly kinetic stage environment where the artist, musicians and scenographic elements could move freely throughout the performance.
The resulting design incorporated motorised musician lifts, suspended lighting pods and a large automated LED screen, alongside a custom mirror-clad sphere that served as the centrepiece of the show’s opening sequence. With so many moving elements interacting within the same performance space, the team required a tracking platform capable of maintaining precise spatial awareness across the entire 8 x 22 metre main stage and 4 x 11 metre B-stage. They accomplished this using two Kapta tracking sensors mounted on the overhead truss structure.
“We’d been following Naostage for some time, but everything really clicked when we saw the system demonstrated in the field at the Poupet Festival”, says Peyrache. “You can shape the system to work with almost any type of fixture, which meant we could integrate it directly into the creative process.” The Naostage K System is built around three core components – the Kapta tracking sensor, the Kore AI deep-trained processing server and the Kratos control software. Together, these form a beaconless tracking platform that identifies performers directly on stage using several cameras and artificial intelligence rather than wearable transmitters or markers.
Mounted above the stage, Kapta sensors use a combination of visible-light cameras, infrared cameras and thermal sensors to generate a real-time 3D representation of the performance space. Data from these cameras and sensors is sent to the Kore server, which processes the information using AI algorithms to determine each performer’s position, movement and speed in real time. The resulting spatial data is then distributed to external show systems through protocols such as PosiStageNet (PSN), OSC and Art-Net.
For the Tiakola tour, the tracking system managed five human targets alongside six machine trackers linked to the stage’s automated elements, resulting in a network of 23 PSN trackers controlling lighting and video behaviour across the show. As the production evolved, the design team began to view the tracking system as something more than an automated followspot tool. “It quickly became the nerve centre of a massive 3D interactive ecosystem”, says Peyrache. “We weren’t just tracking performers. We were tracking the entire stage architecture.”
To coordinate the large amount of spatial data generated by both performers and moving set pieces, the production integrated the Carrot Industries PSN Toolbox into the workflow. Integrated into the setup by lighting operator and developer Jérémy Dufeux, the software acted as a central processing layer between Naostage, a Raynok automation system and the show’s lighting and video control platforms.
The PSN Toolbox collected tracking data from the Naostage system alongside positional information from Raynok, which controlled elements such as the LED screen, mirror sphere, musician lifts and overhead lighting pods. The software then merged and transformed these data streams before sending clean positional data to the GrandMA3 lighting console and the Smode media server.
Calibrating the system required precise alignment between the physical stage and its virtual representation within the lighting console. “To calibrate the space, we defined six reference points on the floor and entered their exact coordinates into the system”, explains Berzon. “That allowed the tracking environment to match the 3D space used by the lighting console, ensuring that everything was speaking the same spatial language.”
In total, more than 120 lighting fixtures were calibrated individually within the tracking environment. This represents a new record for the K System, as it’s the largest number of lighting fixtures ever managed by the platform on a single production. These fixtures included 108 Starway Baracca 360 fixtures, alongside a large complement of Chauvet Professional and Robe products distributed across the stage and moving pods.
The spatial tracking network also allowed the team to explore new creative approaches to lighting and video interaction. Integration with the Smode media server enabled the creation of generative video elements that followed the performer across the stage. “We programmed a virtual halo of light that moved in real time behind Tiakola”, says Peyrache. “As he moved left or right, the halo translated across the LED screen to stay perfectly aligned with his position, merging the physical and digital worlds.”
The production also drew on the expertise of a number of specialist teams. RCube served as technical director, with AIM Motion acting as technical provider. Construction was handled by Eddy May and Fer & Défaire, and automation was overseen by Mash. Media creation was the work of Les Vandales, with Smode operation managed by Pixel Priority, alongside Romain Fior and Romain Delaplace. Lighting console operation was handled by Loris Illouz, and Naostage system operation by Corentin Courcoux.
(Photos: Alien le studio/Naostage)
Robe’s iFortes and Spiiders selected for Amble arena shows
Irish indie-folk trio Amble played three sold-out shows at Dublin’s 3 Arena - their largest headlining gigs to date - plus one at Belfast’s SSE Arena, with lighting designed by Steven Douglas. He used 68 Robe iForte and sixty Robe Spiider moving lights as the primary lighting and effects fixtures for the show, supplied - together with other lights, sound, video and rigging - by Dublin-based rental company Just Lite, project-managed by John McGuinness and Paul Smith.
Douglas first met the band when they were opening for Hozier, also one of his clients, on a US tour. They liked what he was doing and asked him to produce some lighting for them, culminating with these four high-profile arena shows. Amble liked the idea of having a big back wall of lights, so after initial discussions, Douglas took this as a starting point and framed this with an eye-catching LED pros arch to complement the wall of Spiiders. In addition to the three members of the band, these Dublin shows featured up to six guest performers onstage.
“I didn’t want to have a 60 ft wide stage with a load of dead space and people feeling uncomfortable”, Douglas explains, so the LED pros and the back wall of lights functioned as practical set pieces, to which he added risers for guest artists. The back wall of ten wide and six high Spiiders on ladder trusses made a dramatic statement and Douglas also used it to create subtle twinkling and kinetic effects. The Spiiders were interspersed with some blinders and strobes.
The iFortes were positioned on the overhead and front trusses and also on side torms with twelve fixtures on the floor for some rear lumen power. Douglas has used the iForte numerous times, he says. This time, six units rigged on the front truss were paired with a remote follow spot system with two front lights each designated to the three Amble band members, together with one iForte from the back - on a separate truss just upstage of the pros - so for every person there were three iForte follow spots. They were complemented by side lighting from another eight iFortes to complete the key light picture. The twelve iFortes on the floor were used for big, bold, sumptuous beamy backlight looks.
There was no pre-production time at the arena, they loaded in and went straight into the first show. However, Douglas was able to build most of the show on Capture and spent two days of pre-vizzing at Just Lite’s studio in Dublin. Prior to the Arena shows, Douglas completed a quick run of shows with the band in the UK in smaller venues like Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom and London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire, carrying only a small floor package in a trailer with the main workhorse being six Spiiders.
(Photos: Steven Douglas/Adam Heffernan)
GrandMA3 controls lighting and video for Jean-Louis Aubert shows
Lighting designer and programmer Valentin Nebati of TightLight enjoyed a busy 2025 working with several artists and projects, including as lighting director and operator for singer-songwriter Jean-Louis Aubert’s “Pafini” concert series. This tour saw Aubert plus a full band play shows across France, Belgium and Switzerland, a mix of Zenith and arena venues, culminating in a finale at Paris’ La Défense Arena in December.
Nebati chose to work with MA Lighting’s GrandMA3 control system for lighting and video control after joining Jean-Louis Aubert’s creative team in February 2025, where he was working closely with lighting and set designer Jordan Magnée to create the show’s aesthetic.
Nebati has been using the GrandMA platform since the start of his career as a lighting professional fifteen years ago. He has been using version 3 since the software was first released and has been regularly running shows fully on GrandMA3 since 2024. For this tour, he used a GrandMA3 Full-Size console for the arena shows; for the Zeniths and also for some of the festival slots that they played, it was two GrandMA3 Light, and for the finale stadium date, this morphed into four GrandMA3 Light and one GrandMA3 Full-Size.
The stage design was defined by a semi-circular LED upstage surrounded with four concentric arches of LED, with lights popping through the gaps. This offered plenty of scope for the creative lighting and video. In terms of lighting fixtures, for the Zenith shows, Nebati was controlling approximately 300 lights - about 225 moving lights from a handful of manufacturers, plus strobes and blinders - which would be boosted to around 650 for the arena shows and the finale, all supplied by rental company MPM.
Playback video appearing on the screen surfaces was played through a Smode media server and fed into Nebati’s GrandMA3 console Art-Net, giving him the scope to apply nuances and specific effects. The GrandMA3 was run completely manually.
(Photos: Valentin Nebati/Marceau Uguen)
We Belong Here festival lit with Chauvet
Starting only five years ago, We Belong Here has quickly established itself as one of the EDM world’s fastest growing festivals. This year, the event, held at Miami’s historic Virginia Beach Park, reached a new milestone, expanding from two days to three, featuring artists like Kaskade, Chris Lake, Gorgon City, and Tiesto.
Contributing to the engaging vibe throughout the grounds and on the three festival stages, including the 360° main stage, was a lighting design that featured over 100 Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Technical Arts Group.
“Key to our vision for the design was the concept that production will not live on just the live on the stage but will surround the audience”, says designer Moshe Baskin. “By placing lighting elements throughout the site around the main stage area, pathways, and surrounding structures, we created the feeling that the production wraps around the crowd rather than just being something they look at from a distance. It helps the audience feel fully immersed in the environment and makes the entire festival space feel like part of the show.”
Alongside Baskin, the production team included festival production manager Riad Feratovic, L1 Michael Salvatore, house LD Jeffrey Giancaspro, lighting techs Mokishini Luis, Jean Pierre “JP” Pesantez, Nicolas Moreno, Randy Castro and Joseph Eskew, as well as laser vendor Coherent Desi, and laser operator Will Kent.
High on the list of objectives was creating a versatile rig that maximized creative options for visiting LDs. “We created a playground of eight different fixture styles, and staggered configurations specifically for versatility”, says Baskin. “We also focused on creating a balanced blend of video and light. A big part of that was restraint. The lighting rig was designed to complement the lasers rather than compete with them. We avoided oversaturating the stage with LED output during laser moments and made sure the beam fixtures and atmospherics supported the laser effects instead of washing them out.”
Contributing to the lighting part of this equation were 58 Colorado PXL Bar 16 motorized battens, 22 of which were arranged on the overhead rig to deliver top lighting for the performers. By utilizing the 90-degree tilt of these fixtures, the design team was also able to accent the architecture of the stage and the nearby floral installations. The remaining batten fixtures were positioned on towers to provide immersive lighting at the festival site.
The rig’s fifty Color Strike M fixtures were arranged on the stage’s back-grid setup. Staggering these fixtures alongside blinders created a wall of light effect that was essential for those high-energy drops.
The one thing missing from the main stage’s power pack rig was a video wall. “Not having LED screens is a core part of the festival’s identity”, notes Baskin. “We Belong Here intentionally does not use them in productions. From the beginning of this festival’s history, the idea has been to create a visual experience driven by lighting, lasers, and stage architecture rather than large video surfaces.”
(Photos: Chauvet Professional)
Crt Birsa illuminates “Winter Fairytale” with Robe iEsprite LTL
“Winter Fairytale” was a large-scale special production performed by the Ansambel Sasa Avsenika at Ljubljana’s Stozice Arena, and the first live music show in Slovenia to feature Robe iEsprite LTL moving lights, which were newly purchased by rental company Intralite.
Lighting designer Crt Birsa of Blackout Lighting Design added the iEsprite LTLs to the rig for the Slovenian traditional folk music show, for which lighting was programmed and operated by his Blackout colleague Anze Trstenjak. Birsa also designed the stage set together with Greta Godnic.
The 24 iEsprite LTLs were part of a massive Robe moving light rig. In addition to them were sixteen Fortes, thirty MegaPointes, 24 Pointes, 24 LEDBeam150s, 24 ParFects, 57 Spiider LED wash beams and eight MMX WashBeams, a classic Robe favourite of Birsa’s (before MegaPointe, Esprite and Forte) that he often includes, and in this case, they were highlighting the audience.
The event is a new show concept, and this was the first time it had played in an arena. The first “Winter Fairytale” gig had taken place a year before in a much smaller venue, so this substantial step up also required a requisite jump in production scale and value. Trstenjak had worked on most of the group’s latest concerts in recent years. They are popular in Austria and Germany as well as Slovenia, so he brought continuity to the table while Birsa brought his experience of designing and shaping arena and stadium shows.
Godnic’s set design was 29 metres wide, so wider than is standard for the venue, and this brought an essential sense of presence. She and Birsa wanted the environment to be interesting, different and innovative, but the “Winter Fairytale” theme also denoted something soft and warm, so Godnic wanted to riff on the idea of circles.
Birsa - known for incorporating architectural shapes into stage designs - immediately set to work on this, which is how the series of interlocking circles and semi-circles evolved. He and Godnic also suggested having a 10-metre central round screen after persuading the artists that a larger one would not have the same visual impact.
Sixty-four rigging points later - a lot for Slovenia - this piece of stagecraft began emerging. One challenge was to find angled truss connectors to create all the circles onto which Trstenjak and Birsa then placed all the lights. They calculated optimal positioning from an architectural standpoint and also how the luminaires could work most flexibly.
When Birsa drew up the initial plot, Intralite’s Ales Pirman wasn’t sure the LTLs would be delivered in time, but in his enthusiasm, Birsa put them on the plot anyway, with twelve prominent on the centre circle in the roof and the other twelve on the four short trusses left and right of the screen. Trstenjak used the iEsprite LTLs extensively for back lighting of the band, orchestra, and choir, often at full intensity.
The sixteen Fortes were deployed in appropriate locations around the stage. Over forty trees were incorporated into the stage set and backlit with three Fortes per side on the floor. One Forte was positioned at the back of the stairs and five were on the mid truss, perfect for back lighting, with the balance on the front and delay trusses for key lighting.
The 24 Pointes were rigged in the central circle and on the half circles left and right, and all the circular trusses were toned by a combination of 24 ParFects and other LED PARs. ParFect is one of only a few fixtures that can be squeezed into 30 cm truss. The LEDBeam150s were on the floor around the stage, used both as general show light and provided some low-level back light for the band.
The Spiiders were dotted all around the trusses and circles with the front ones utilised as primary front light for the orchestra and choir, with the rear fixtures serving as the main stage wash lights. The MegaPointes were along the sides, complementing the back truss Spiiders. Two BMFL WashBeams fitted with LightMaster handles were used for manual follow spots left and right of house in the usual sports camera positions.
Robe luminaires made up 85 percent of the rig and the fixtures were used for all the main stage lighting, supported by a bunch of strobes, blinders, and other effects lights. The Blackout team, including Trstenjak, came in one day before the show day and worked an 18-hour shift through the setup, with one night of onsite programming; however, by this time, they had completed a serious amount of previsualisation, which was key to delivering the show with so little onsite time.
(Photos: Innea Studio/Luka Kotnik/Zan Zajc)
Pierre E. Roy colorizes “Beatles Story Band Orchestra II” with Chauvet
The “Beatles Story Band Orchestra II” tour’s Théâtre Capitole show in Quebec City, Canada, on March 14, 2026, featured a flow of stark psychedelic-inspired color patterns created with help from Chauvet Professional fixtures.
“My color choices were made very deliberately to evoke the Beatles’ psychedelic era”, explains lighting designer Pierre E. Roy. “For the ‘Sgt. Pepper’ intro, I created a rainbow effect that evoked the mood of the album. My colors were also chosen to follow the video content and match it visually, as we would say.”
But the Beatles did not always play amidst rainbows. In the earliest days, when they performed at Liverpool’s Cavern Club and in the underground haunts of Hamburg’s St. Pauli quarter, the lighting was often pale and dim. Roy reflects this too in his design. “The beginning of the show is much more focused on shades of white, because in the early Beatles days, colored lighting simply didn’t exist”, he says. “So, for roughly the first thirty minutes of the show I stay within variations of white - warm, cool, slightly greenish, yellowish. As soon as we enter the ‘Sgt. Pepper’ era, I bring out all the colors.”
For the final two-plus hours of the show, Roy treats fans to a panorama of colors, which, like the Beatles music from the late 1960s, is joyfully transcendent. At times, his colors are painted across the stage in broad strokes, while at others they reflect moods in more narrowly focused beams. The palette on stages also moves seamless from monochromatic to multi-colored.
Key to helping Roy weave these colors together at Théâtre Capitole were sixteen Maverick Force 2 Spot fixtures. “We had twelve of them rigged on pipes to create different looks and for musician specials, and four on the floor to create a nice fanning effect while keeping the orchestra in shadow”, Roy says of the fixture. “Their wide zoom range was helpful in changing the scope and depth of our lighting.”
Joining the Maverick fixtures was a collection of Colorado 2 Quad Zoom units, which were used to pour additional color on to the musicians. “We were passionate about covering the stage with color”, says Roy. “I am grateful that Pierre Chainé and Christian Morissette from Productions Orchestra Inc. entrusted me to bring this vision to life. We all wanted to use color to capture the magic of the Beatles.”
(Photos: Chauvet Professional)
Green-Hippo-Media-Server bilden technisches Rückgrat beim Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Der Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2025 verwandelte die georgische Hauptstadt Tiflis in eine internationale Bühne für junge Talente. Unter dem Motto „United by Music“ entstand eine visuell opulente Produktion, die märchenhafte Bildwelten mit moderner Medien- und Lichttechnik verband und gleichzeitig den Anforderungen einer internationalen Live-TV-Produktion gerecht werden musste.
Im Zentrum der technischen Umsetzung stand eine Media-Server-Infrastruktur auf Basis von Green-Hippo-Hippotizer-Meuse-MX-Systemen, die von Trust.Rental geplant, implementiert und betrieben wurde. Das Bühnen- und Lichtdesign entwickelte Raphael Demonthy von Sunrise Studios. Sunrise Studios übernahm außerdem die komplette technische Planung für Licht und Video. Die technische Planung im Videobereich wurde von Sebastian Huwig (Trust.Rental) als Head of Video Planning geleitet.
Das Ergebnis war ein stark videobasiertes Bühnenkonzept, dessen präzise Geometrien und räumliche Struktur eine markante Alternative zu klassischen Song-Contest-Bühnen darstellten. Verschiedene LED-Flächen, Ebenen und Raumzonen konnten für jede Performance individuell genutzt und neu interpretiert werden, während gleichzeitig eine klare visuelle Gesamtidentität der Bühne erhalten blieb.
Die Bühne selbst war als mehrschichtige Medienarchitektur angelegt, die sich über die gesamte Breite der Halle erstreckte. Zwei großformatige, gebogene LED-Wände links und rechts bildeten die dominanten Hintergrundflächen und rahmten eine kleinere zentrale LED-Fläche ein, die als architektonischer Fokuspunkt fungierte.
Von diesem zentralen Element führte eine breite Showtreppe zur Centerstage. Sowohl die Stufen der Treppe als auch der Boden der Centerstage waren vollständig mit LED-Panels ausgestattet und nahtlos in die Gesamtstruktur integriert. Seitlich angeordnete Terrassen mit LED-verkleideten Fronten erweiterten die Bühne um zusätzliche Ebenen und boten weitere Möglichkeiten für die Inszenierung der einzelnen Beiträge.
Eine durchgehende LED-Banderole entlang der vorderen Bühnenkante verband sämtliche Bühnenelemente visuell miteinander und bildete einen klaren Abschluss zum Publikum. Für ausgewählte Auftritte wurde das Setup zusätzlich durch Projektoren erweitert, die mithilfe von 3D-Videomapping weitere visuelle Ebenen in die Bühnenarchitektur integrierten.
Trust.Rental war für die Planung, die Umsetzung und den Betrieb der gesamten Media-Server-Infrastruktur verantwortlich. Im Zentrum des Systems standen Hippotizer-Meuse-MX-Media-Server. Insgesamt kamen fünf aktive Systeme sowie fünf redundante Backup-Systeme zum Einsatz. Das Server-Setup stellte sechzehn unabhängige 4K-Ausgänge bereit und versorgte damit sämtliche LED-Flächen der Bühne. Zusätzlich steuerte das System drei Pixel-Mapping-Zonen über Art-Net, darunter videofähige LED-Streifen sowie architektonische Akzente innerhalb der Bühnenstruktur.
Das Content-Management basierte auf einem 100-Gigabit-Mediennetzwerk mit zentralem NAS-System. Insgesamt wurden etwa 52 Terabyte Videomaterial verarbeitet. Die Green-Hippo-Systeme waren vollständig in den DMX-Workflow integriert und wurden über eine GrandMA2-Lichtkonsole gesteuert. Gerade im dynamischen Probenbetrieb erwies sich diese Integration als nützlich: Änderungen konnten schnell umgesetzt und unmittelbar getestet werden, teilweise während laufender Proben. Mittels Pixel-Mapping und Live-Masking wurden Inhalte an komplexe Bühnengeometrien angepasst, ohne zeitaufwendige Neu- Renderings durchführen zu müssen.
Während viele Delegationen eigenen Mediencontent mitbrachten, war Trust.Event Engineering für die Gestaltung der Show-Opener, Interval-Acts und sogenannten „House Looks“ verantwortlich. Zusätzlich unterstützte Trust Delegationen ohne eigenes LED-Content-Material sowohl bei der kreativen Entwicklung als auch bei der technischen Umsetzung ihrer visuellen Konzepte. Das Team beriet außerdem bei technischen Setups und Workflow-Fragen. Im Auftrag von Sunrise Studios war ein Team aus zwei Media-Server-Systemspezialisten und einem Content-Supervisor vor Ort. Darüber hinaus übernahm Trust.Rental die technische Video- und Contentplanung während des gesamten Projektverlaufs.
Die Produktion wurde von einem international erfahrenen Kreativ- und Operator-Team umgesetzt, darunter Raphael Demonthy (Produktion, Licht- und Videodesign), Marcel Knauf (Assistant Lighting Designer), Fabian Schmidt (Lighting Director & Showlight), Matthias Hagel (Spot Caller), Tobias Heydthausen (Keylight Operator), Matthias Schöffmann (Media Server Operator), Christian van Deenen (Media Server Farmer), Martin Karl (Media Server Projection Mapping), Sebastian Huwig (Head of Video Planning), Oliver Klaus (LD Gaffer) und David Kulla (LD Vision Engineer) sowie die FollowMe-System-Engineers Matthias Held und Christian „Rocketchris“ Glatthor. Das Motion-Graphics-Design wurde von Sebastian Huwig und Nathalie Zittlau erstellt.
(Fotos: Sunrise Studios/Trust.Event Engineering)
MLD inszeniert Hager-Messestand auf Light + Building mit innovativer Medienarchitektur
Als technischer Partner hat die Music & Light Design GmbH (MLD) den gesamten Messeauftritt der Hager Group auf der Light + Building 2026 realisiert. Von der Planung bis zur Umsetzung aller technischen Gewerke verantwortete MLD die Veranstaltungstechnik, um einen interaktiven Erlebnisraum für Besucher und Fachpublikum zu schaffen. Die Messe läuft noch bis zum 13. März.
Im Zentrum des Messestandes steht ein sechs Meter hoher LED-Turm auf einer Fläche von 3 x 3 Metern, bestehend aus zwei Kuben. Während der untere Kubus fixiert bleibt, dreht sich der obere um die vertikale Achse. Gleichzeitig wird der gesamte Turm mit dynamischem und an die Bewegung angepasstem Videocontent bespielt, der das neue Schalterprogramm von Hager präsentiert. Diese Sonderkonstruktion wurde speziell für den Messestand entwickelt und erstmalig in dieser Form realisiert.
Zusätzlich integrierte MLD mehrere interaktive Medienstationen, an denen Besucher durch das Betätigen von Hager-Schaltern unterschiedliche Inhalte abrufen können. Jede Interaktion wird in Echtzeit getrackt, sodass nachvollzogen werden kann, welches Produkt wie oft genutzt wird.
Da ein großes Schaltschrank-Exponat aufgrund einer Hallensäule nicht vollständig physisch aufgebaut werden konnte, ersetzte MLD den fehlenden Teil durch eine passgenaue LED-Wand, die über ein Radar-Touch-System bedient wird. Besucher können unterschiedliche Inhalte abrufen und direkt mit der Medienarchitektur interagieren.
(Fotos: Joerg Volland)
ADJ spots, beams and washes used for “Momentum Conference” in Illinois
ADJ automated luminaires were used extensively in the lighting rig for the recent “Momentum Conference”, a two-day Christian youth event in Springfield, Illinois. A combination of Focus Spot 7Z, Vizi Beam CMY and Focus Flex L19 fixtures created looks and effects that filled the arena venue.
With this year’s event, “Momentum” returned to a full-scale arena setting at the BoS Center, a 7,700-seat venue in downtown Springfield. The conference featured speakers, worship, and a performance from hip-hop artist Miles Minnick.
Lighting designer Alex Kanaris has been involved with “Momentum” for a quarter of a century, first taking on the role at just nineteen years old. Today, he leads the production through his company, Showco AV, an AVL provider, which supplied all the lighting equipment and rigging for this year’s event. Incorporated in 2003 as Automated Lighting Design with a focus on lighting, the company rebranded during the COVID-19 pandemic as Showco AV. It now offers complete audio, video and lighting support, as well as rigging and custom fabrication, for a wide variety of productions and events.
Following the pandemic, the “Momentum Conference” had been scaled back and hosted in large church auditoriums equipped with in-house AVL systems. This year’s return to a commercial arena presented a creative challenge, explains Kanaris: “In recent years the event has been in churches which were set up with full AVL infrastructures - including LED walls - so we’ve used video content as the backdrop to the stage. For this first year back in an arena, the budget just wasn’t there for a video wall, so I had to come up with another way to make the set look good.”
“I figured I’d throw a ton of movers at it and spread them out to fill the space”, he continues. “Where we would have had a giant LED wall upstage, we hung a truss mid-stage, about halfway up the trim, and filled it with beams and spots. It meant instead of a boring black backdrop, we could use beams and gobo projections to create lots of different background looks. It worked out really well.”
To generate texture, depth and dynamic background visuals, Kanaris deployed eighteen ADJ Focus Spot 7Z moving head fixtures, evenly distributed across the upstage, downstage and mid-stage trusses, six fixtures on each. They were instrumental in replacing the visual impact of a large LED wall. Gobo projections and aerial effects created layered backgrounds that shifted seamlessly between high-energy worship moments and more intimate teaching segments.
To complement the spots and deliver tight aerial effects, twenty ADJ Vizi Beam CMY fixtures were integrated into the rig. Six units were positioned on both the upstage and downstage trusses, four on the mid-stage truss and one on each of four stage carts. They delivered crisp, high-intensity beams that cut through the space, creating dramatic aerial looks during worship sets and energizing the performance by Miles Minnick.
Rounding out the rig were twelve ADJ Focus Flex L19 moving head wash fixtures. Four were mounted on the upstage truss, four on the downstage truss and four placed on carts positioned along the back of the stage. The combination of wash coverage, beam effects and silhouetting techniques helped create emotional contrast throughout the event.
(Photos: ADJ/Showco AV)
Marfa Lights inszenieren Live-Comeback von Lilas ir Innomine mit Cameo
Fünf Jahre nach seinem Bühnenrückzug kehrte das Hip-Hop-Duo Lilas ir Innomine 2025 mit einem ausverkauften Open-Air-Konzert im Vingis Park in Vilnius zurück. Rund 20.000 Besucher erlebten das bislang größte Konzert der litauischen Rap-Geschichte. Für das Licht- und Videodesign zeichnete Marfa Lights im Auftrag von Baltic Production Service verantwortlich. Zum Einsatz kam ein outdoortaugliches Lichttechnik-Setup von Cameo.
Im Zentrum der Bühne im Vingis Park stand eine halbkreisförmige Konstruktion aus LED-Screens, Treppen und Catwalk. Chor, Tänzer, Spezialeffekte, Licht und Videoelemente wurden zu einem durchgängigen visuellen Konzept verbunden. Ziel war es, die musikalische Dramaturgie der Show um die beiden Protagonisten Konstantinas Kiveris-Lilas und Rolandas Venckis-Innomine auch visuell auf sämtlichen Ebenen zu transportieren.
Das Marfa-Lights-Team um Lichtdesigner Andrius Stasiulis setzte unter anderem Cameos Zenit-W300- und Zenit-W600-Outdoor-LED-Wash-Lights, Otos-B5-IP65-Beam-Moving-Heads und Pixbar-SMD-IP-G2-LED-Bars ein, die jeweils in großer Stückzahl und über das gesamte Bühnenbild verteilt waren.
Die Grundlage des Lichtkonzepts bildeten die Zenit W600. Die IP65-zertifizierten LED-Wash-Lights sorgten für eine gleichmäßige Ausleuchtung über die gesamte Bühnenbreite. Ergänzend nutzte Marfa Lights Zenit W300 als Footlights. Für Akzente, Pixel-Designs und Farbverläufe kamen zusätzlich die Pixbar SMD IP G2 zum Einsatz.
Das Videodesign wurde nahtlos in das Gesamtkonzept integriert. Auf Basis der GrandMA-Lichtpulte sowie der Softwarelösungen Notch und Hippotizer gestaltete Pijus Norusis, Video Designer bei Marfa Lights, visuelle Sequenzen, die wie ein erweitertes Lichtdesign funktionierten. „Weil wir das Video nach denselben Prinzipien programmiert haben wie das Licht, konnten wir eine durchgehend konsistente visuelle Sprache schaffen“, so Norusis.
(Fotos: Adam Hall Group/Marfa Lights)
Alex Mungal evokes fierce imagery on Slaughter to Prevail tour with Chauvet
Russian deathcore band Slaughter to Prevail’s recent “Grizzly Winter” tour of the UK and EU was supported by an Alex Mungal lighting design. The 18-city run concluded February 8, 2026, at Prague’s Forum Karlin.
Mungal and his team’s goal was to create a design that translated the masked band’s power and in-your-face music with a matching level of ferocity. “This show was built to emphasize the monstrosity that Slaughter to Prevail has already built with their individual members”, says Mungal. “There are some killer players with terrifying masks on stage. We wanted to bring the themes of their songs to life while keeping the emotions powerful and energetic.”
Scaling his show up or down, depending on the venue, Mungal and his crew were able to fit their show on every stage, creating a starkly intense look that drew fans into the music. “We scaled up and down over the course of the EU tour with varying sizes of venues, but for the most part the crew and I made this beast fit everywhere we went”, he says. “My crew’s support and flexibility made them the real heroes of the tour.”
Helping Mungal and his team accomplish this were 32 Chauvet Professional Color Strike M fixtures supplied by Victory Event Stage & Tour. They positioned twelve of the Color Strike M units in the air and used them for top washes, snare bombs and big hits at dramatic moments. The other twenty units were called upon to create layered uplighting throughout the grated depth, in addition to serving as cyc washes for some songs.
“We really leaned into uplighting on this one through a combination of top/key light and under riser lighting featuring the Color Strike M and batten fixtures”, says Mungal. “It was an additional challenge to simplify light sources for some of the trade-offs, but also it looked cool.”
The Color Strike M also helped Mungal unfold narratives for individual songs through the use of color changes. “Several of the songs follow Slavic folklore tales, so following themes and moods via color choices and source placement to make the ‘characters’ pop was important”, he explains. “Songs like ‘Babayka’ tell of a creature that comes after children if they misbehave or don’t go to bed - we used cold dark tones to bring this nightmarish feel to life. Another song, ‘Baba Yaga’, tells of the bogeyman, so a lot of the lighting choices throughout the show brought a horror combining effects and the band’s masks to elevate everything.”
Beyond light angles and colors, Mungal relied on atmospherics and distinctive inflatables to capture the essence of the music on stage. “We used both flames and fog throughout the show”, he says. “There is a certain percussiveness that comes with the impact of these moments. We had a couple varying sizes of inflatables we’d use depending on space. Inh the end, everything was built out of the music.”
(Photos: Moonvibes/Petrov Visuals)
Veteran broadcast engineer Daryl Doss opts for Studio Technologies
With more than four decades of experience in radio broadcasting and live sports production, Daryl Doss, owner of Doss Technical Services and a contract engineer for SiriusXM and Westwood One Sports, delivers audio systems for some of the industry’s most demanding broadcast environments.
From NFL games and March Madness to Super Bowl Radio Row and The Masters golf tournament, Doss has come to rely on a selection of Dante-based intercom and announcer solutions from Studio Technologies to meet the fast-paced demands of modern broadcast production. As a freelance engineer supporting national broadcasts, Doss is responsible for specifying, integrating, and deploying the equipment. “My job is to make what we have work great, sound great, and be ultra-reliable”, he explains.
Doss’ Studio Technologies deployment centers around Dante-enabled infrastructure, allowing him to streamline complex signal paths using a single Ethernet connection. “Instead of running multiple discrete audio cables for program, IFB, talkback, and coordination, I can run one cable, power the device via PoE, and be ready to go”, he says.
His primary talent interface is the Studio Technologies Model 204 Announcer’s Console, which he deploys across a wide range of productions from small SiriusXM talk show setups to large-scale sports broadcasts. For producer and crew communications, Doss uses Studio Technologies’ Model 348 Intercom Station, Model 374A Intercom Beltpack, and additional intercom solutions that form the backbone of his fly pack.
For major events such as The Masters, where all connections must be hardwired, Doss deploys fiber-extended Dante networks across multiple course locations, utilizing multiple Model 204 units at each position.
Doss owns an extensive Studio Technologies inventory, including multiple Model 204, Model 205, Model 208 and Model 210 Announcer Consoles, Model 348 Intercom Stations, and various beltpack solutions such as the Model 374A Intercom Beltpacks, Model 381 On-air Beltpacks and the Model 362 Listen-only Beltpacks.
(Photo: Studio Technologies, Inc.)
Burj Khalifa NYE event lit with Robe
As the world welcomed 2026, Dubai, UAE, staged a mixed visual media extravaganza, as lighting, video, lasers and fireworks fired off the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa tower, in an event organised by Emaar and produced by Our Legacy Creations.
Robe was also part of it, with eighty-six iForte LTX fixtures on the lighting rig for a spectacle staged on the Burj lake that led into the fireworks, lit by Dom Smith and Paul Johnson from UK-based design studio NeonBlack. The Burj Khalifa NYE event this year started with this dramatic, full-tilt 20-minute show staged across a 450-metre open performance space on a large section of the Burj lake in front of the 828-metre-high building that dominates the downtown Dubai skyline. Twenty-five custom floats, boats, waterboards and jet-skis were involved - with a cast of 570, including a tightrope walker traversing a high-tension cable strung between points of the adjacent shopping mall - in the performance.
Smith and Johnson met the challenges involved in lighting this show, creatively directed by Tiziana Pagliarulo (OLC), choosing Robe iForte LTX moving lights to provide all key lighting for the entertainment programme. The spectacle then led into the 60-second NYE countdown that cued the firework grand finale on the Burj. This new pre-fireworks segment added an extra visual layer to the annual event at the Burj Khalifa, watched by tens of thousands live, and streamed to billions more.
The main issue for Smith and Johnson’s lighting design was getting enough powerful key lighting rigged in the right places to register properly and illuminate the cast across this vast area, so the 36 broadcast cameras, directed by Marcus Viner, could get the best shots. Additionally, for the tightrope artist, twenty-four iForte LTXs were placed on the roof of the Dubai Mall to light the line. The only available positioning for tracking follow spots was on top of the souk market, around 150 metres away from the location of the wire.
“Robe’s iForte LTX was the only option to light the 150- to 200-metre longest throw distances involved”, says Smith, adding that, for the last two years, the iForte LTX has become a go-to key lighting tool for their work. The eighty-six iForte LTXs were supplied by the event’s technical equipment rental contractor Media Pro, who are based in Dubai, and were among approximately 3,000 other fixtures in total used for the show, including the Burj Khalifa’s permanently installed lights.
Most of these iForte LTXs were positioned all around the lake, mainly on the permanent PA speaker towers, with some on custom truss towers fabricated by Media Pro. The tightrope line itself was illuminated by the twenty-four iForte LTXs on top of the souk, and another two fixtures were positioned on the roof of the souk bazaar, used exclusively for tracking the artist. These were controlled by a Robe RoboSpot control system positioned by the lights on the rooftop to help with accurate targeting.
Most of the sixty iForte LTXs around the lake were also on a remote follow system using multiple fixed cameras to cover the enormous field of view that was the stage. All the show’s key and white lighting was programmed and directed by David Wolstenholme. The effects lighting was programmed by Eliot Jessep and Josh Musgrave in the UK and during pre-viz, and Alex Douglas in Dubai.
In addition to the various water-based performance floats, the event also included a series of large Rio-carnival style parade floats that drove down Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard at the start of the entertainment, which also had to be lit, together with the front of the Burj Khalifa facing onto the lake. The fireworks “conductor” was lifted up to fifteen metres on a hydraulic platform and was also tracked by iForte LTXs.
(Photos: Whatever Live/Katie Bowen)
Nick Jevons and Ross Chapple create imagery for I Hate Models with Chauvet
I Hate Models is the stage name of French techno music producer Guillaume Labadie, whose “Refract: I Hate Models All Night Long” show in January 2026 took place in a 12,000-square meter space at Hall 1, Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. The show kicked off at 10 pm and lasted until the wee hours of the morning.
Enhancing the experience at the spacious venue was a visual production by Nick Jevons and Ross Chapple of Auratecture that flowed with the transcendent music and immersed the room with dynamic lighting displays. Describing the show with its 360 stage and asymmetrical design, Jevons refers to it as a combination of “brutalist asymmetry and Mayan-like scenography”.
“For us, Brutalist asymmetry meant raw mass plus deliberate imbalance”, he details. “It is the look of a structure that is too heavy, too stubborn, or too functional to bother aligning itself perfectly. We wanted to prioritize function over visual comfort. We reference Mayan civilization because of its architecture and how they used sheer size in their structures to show power. The doorways of their temples often represented a cave which were seen as portals to the underworld, while all set in a scene from a movie set.”
A collection of sixty Chauvet Professional Strike Array 4C blinders, placed in the “inner sanctum” of the massive central DJ booth, were instrumental in bringing this vision to life. Visible to the audience only from the booth’s tiered platforms, the fixtures created glowing reflective light of the metal set, which accentuated the brutalist aura around the stage.
“Our vision was to create a chaotic and industrial energy underneath the booth’s walkways”, continues Jevons. “The Strike 4C was the perfect choice for this, as we got the wide, bright throw of a blinder combined with the ability to chase and strobe them at high speeds. The fixtures’ output, combined with their color rendering (RGB + Amber), gave us the ability to apply the overall color palette of the show around the booth through the dense fog and haze. This greatly enhanced the transformative atmosphere in the room.”
Jevons, Chapple and their team, including Jean-Denis Rolland (TD and PM), and rigger S Group Live Event spread strobe lighting throughout the room to accentuate the mood. Their shared vision was to create a “desert-scene, much like you would see in the ‘Dune’ movies, with scorched sunsets, deep reds, sandy CTO’s, and bold open whites”, concludes Jevons.
(Photos: Chauvet Professional)
Christina Rupp lights Army-Navy Gala with Elation Paragon
Christina Rupp used Elation Paragon fixtures to illuminate the Army-Navy Gala in December 2025 at the Baltimore Convention Center. The fixtures were supplied by Elkridge, Maryland-based stage lighting company Afterglow Lighting, an early adopter of Elation’s Paragon LED profile moving head.
The event, held ahead of the 126th Army-Navy football game, one of the oldest rivalries in U.S. college football, featured a transformed ballroom complete with a main stage, dance floor, and a variety of performance elements honoring those who serve. Rupp, a lighting designer and master electrician with a decade of industry experience, has worked on Army-Navy collaborations before, but this marked her first time working on the Army-Navy Gala. She frequently collaborates with Afterglow and was brought onto the project by Afterglow and the client, VPC.
“This was not your standard corporate design with a stage wash and audience wash”, she explains. “We needed lighting to transition from a formal dinner to onstage presentations, to performances by bands, cheerleaders, and dance groups, to a late-night dance party. We needed those clean stage washes and audience lighting, but also pickups, accent lighting, and vibrant effects while supporting other elements like walkthroughs and videos.”
Rupp led the design and operation of 32 Paragon S, along with twelve Seven Batten 72, and other fixtures. On stage, the designer created tailored looks with distinct colors for each service branch as the MC highlighted their accomplishments, then shifted to entirely different looks for other presentations, keeping the visuals fluid and dynamic. A full band also performed on stage, playing throughout dinner and into the late-night dance party. A central walkway ran through the room, used by the MC, performers like the color guard, and arriving guests. “Anyone walking down it, or when the MC moved into the audience or onto the dance floor, was lit by the Paragons”, says Rupp.
The designer created a dynamic walk-in look with slow-moving effects, carrying a red, white, and blue theme from the national anthem into the dinner look. “It provided a calm look for dinner in colors that represented both the Army and Navy”, Rupp explains. “Being able to carefully frame and focus the Paragons to place the blue precisely in the center of the onstage scenic piece added a three-dimensional effect.”
The Seven Batten 72 fixtures, 6-foot full-color batten wash luminaires, were used to enhance the scenic from above and below, adding depth and dimension to the look. Rupp employed the Paragon’s TruTone variable CRI engine, switching between high and low CRI looks to create a more dynamic feel, and accessed the fixture’s animation wheel to create diverse looks throughout the night. At dinner, for example, she applied slow-moving animations to the walls intertwined with custom gobos. Then later, during the dance party, she switched to more animated gobo transitions.
The setup included an upstage truss, downstage truss, and four perpendicular trusses extending into the audience that housed the Paragons used extensively for pickups and accent lighting. “For any audience or band pickup, or any situation that needed some punch, I went straight to the Paragon”, says Rupp.
Afterglow’s lighting crew comprised Production Manager/Show Master Electrician Josh Watson, who drafted the plot with Rupp’s advice and preferences in mind, plus lighting techs Jake Myers, Galen Newell, and Ethan Cooper who pre-rigged, patched, and managed the load-in. The 2025 Army-Navy Gala was managed and designed by Chicken Scratch and executed in collaboration with VPC.
(Photos: Elation)
Steve Ouimette fängt steinzeitliche Percussion für „Just Dance 2026“ mit Schoeps-Mikrofonen ein
Ubisofts „Just Dance“-Reihe zählt mit fast dreißig Titeln auf unterschiedlichen Gaming-Plattformen zu den erfolgreichsten und langlebigsten Tanzspielen. Seit 2011 ist der Gitarrist und Komponist Steve Ouimette („Call of Duty“, „Far Cry 6“, „Guitar Hero“) regelmäßig mitbeteiligt.
Für „Just Dance 2026“ präsentiert Ouimette den „Prehistorock“, einen Steinzeit-Groove, basierend auf einem Ensemble aus selbst gefertigten Instrumenten und dazu improvisierter Percussion. Um die archaische Klangwelt authentisch einzufangen, nutzte Ouimette für die gesamte Aufnahme ausschließlich ein Paar Schoeps-Colette-Mikrofone mit MK-4-Kapseln.
Ouimettes erste Aufträge für die „Just Dance“-Reihe knüpften an seine Arbeit für andere Musikspiele an - ein Prozess, den er als „forensisches Re-recording" bezeichnet. Dafür recherchiert und rekonstruiert er die Klänge klassischer Aufnahmen, bis sie vom Original nicht mehr zu unterscheiden sind. Durch diesen Prozess entwickelte Ouimette enzyklopädisches Wissen über populäre Musik und deren unterschiedliche Produktionsstile.
„Das Komponieren für diese Spiele hat das musikalische Chamäleon in mir geweckt“, sagt er. „Wenn man von Genre zu Genre springt und all ihre Feinheiten in- und auswendig lernt, prägt einen das stark. So zu arbeiten hat meine Intuition als Komponist stark erweitert. Als Ubisoft sah, dass ich auch gern über den Tellerrand hinausschaue, öffneten sich die Türen zu den experimentelleren und interessanteren Tracks.“
Ein Markenzeichen von Ouimettes Arbeit für die „Just Dance“-Reihe ist seine Vorliebe für ungewöhnliche Aufträge. Er experimentiert häufig mit unkonventionellen Aufnahmetechniken und entwickelt eigene Instrumente, um die Anforderungen eines bestimmten Auftrags zu erfüllen. „Seit fast fünfzehn Jahren geben sie mir mitunter die absurdesten Aufgaben - von Bollywood-Weihnachtsliedern über Balkan-Tänze bis hin zu arabischen Trap-Tracks und vielem mehr“, sagt Ouimette. „Jede davon erfordert einen kreativen, respektvollen Ansatz und ein Ohr für die klanglichen Besonderheiten, die den jeweiligen Stil ausmachen.“
„Spieleentwickler lieben echte Instrumente für ein möglichst immersives Erlebnis - es zieht die Spieler mitten hinein“, fährt er fort. „Dieser menschliche Fingerabdruck in einer sonst eher virtuellen Klangwelt macht den Unterschied. Deshalb nehme ich nach wie vor viele echte Instrumente auf und suche nach Wegen, diese menschlichen Elemente in der Aufnahme herauszuarbeiten. Dies erfordert besondere Sorgfalt bei der Mikrofonwahl - besonders bei ‘Prehistorock’, einem der verrücktesten Tracks für das aktuelle Spiel.“
Im Rahmen von „Just Dance 2026“ erhielt Ouimette den Auftrag, einen wuchtigen „prähistorischen“ Rock-Track zu schreiben, der wie ein Mammut oder T-Rex in Bewegung klingen sollte. Für Ouimette war zudem offensichtlich, dass Percussion eine tragende Rolle spielen sollte, wenn der Sound eines Urmenschen dargestellt werden soll. „Mir war klar, dass ich mich auf ein- oder zweisilbige Wörter beschränken musste, um der Höhlenmensch-Ästhetik gerecht zu werden“, erklärt er. „Das schrie förmlich nach einem perkussiven Ansatz - Stampfen, Klatschen, auf Holz und Stein schlagen, solche Sachen.“
Ouimette verwendete die Colette-Mikrofone mit MK 4-Kapseln als breites Stereopaar, um ein improvisierendes Percussion-Orchester aufzunehmen: Cajón, Bongos, Woodblocks, Shaker und einige seiner selbstgebauten Percussion-Instrumente. „Ich habe mein Percussion-Instrumentarium im Halbkreis aufgebaut und es mit den Colettes einfach so aufgenommen, wie es stand“, sagt er. „So entstand ein schönes, tiefes Stereobild, das letztlich wie ein riesiges Ensemble klang.“
„Es war ein einzigartiger Song, und seine Unnachahmlichkeit brauchte ein hörbares Maß an Imperfektion“, schließt Ouimette. „Die Schoeps-Mikrofone spielten dabei eine wichtige Rolle. Kein Quantisieren und ein bisschen ‘Menschlichkeit’ bewirken viel - und Schoeps hat mir geholfen, dieses Gefühl einzufangen.“
ADJ fixtures power dynamic floor package for They Might Be Giants tour
When They Might Be Giants hit the road for their recent North American run, the production embraced a lighting approach that could deliver impact, nostalgia, and variety night after night. Central to that design was a compact floor package supplied by Eagle Production Co. and built around ADJ’s Encore DBX full-color blinders alongside Jolt Bar FX multifunctional linear LED fixtures.
The 19-date trek, titled “The Big Tour”, travelled across North America during September, October and November of last year, bringing the band’s alternative rock to theaters and concert halls across the continent. Featuring an eight-piece lineup, including a three-piece horn section, the show balanced tight musicianship with the playful theatricality that has defined They Might Be Giants for decades. Lighting designer for “The Big Tour” was Ellingon Smith.
With no opening act, the band performed two full sets each night, drawing heavily from across their extensive catalog. A rotating “spotlight” section in the first set showcased songs from a different album each night to ensure every performance felt unique. The lighting design relied on a strong visual framework that could adapt quickly. In total, eighteen ADJ Encore DBX fixtures and twelve Jolt Bar FX units were used to create the tour’s lighting floor package.
The Encore DBX blinders were stacked in six columns of three, while the Jolt Bars were mounted vertically to floor-standing pipes. Their placement created a distinctive visual rhythm: a single unit furthest from the central screen, then two units, then three closest to the screen, forming a diamond-shaped frame that visually anchored the performance and emphasized the band’s center-stage presence. This configuration delivered punchy audience hits, textured background looks, and dynamic accents that worked equally well for bombastic horn-driven numbers and more intimate moments. Complementing the blinders, the Jolt Bar FX fixtures provided strobe effects, color washes, and animated eye candy.
Lighting for the tour was supplied by New Jersey-based vendor Eagle Production Co. Founded in 2009 as an audio company, Eagle Productions has since evolved into a full-service production house, offering audio, video, lighting, rigging, and power solutions. In 2023, the company strategically refocused its business on dry hire, providing equipment rental and production support for other audiovisual production companies.
Over the past two years, Eagle Productions has added more than 2,500 lighting fixtures to its inventory, bringing its total to nearly 4,500 lights, supported by one of the largest production prep spaces located close to New York. Eagle Productions was also an early adopter of the ADJ Encore DBX, initially purchasing 48 units upon release and quickly expanding its inventory.
(Photos: ADJ)
