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We Belong Here festival lit with Chauvet
25/03/2026
Burj Khalifa NYE event lit with Robe
24/02/2026
Steve Ouimette fängt steinzeitliche Percussion für „Just Dance 2026“ mit Schoeps-Mikrofonen ein
19/02/2026
Technical Elements lights Emory Healthcare’s brand refresh with nearly 800 Elation fixtures
18/02/2026
Olga Lounová concerts lit with Chauvet
17/02/2026
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)
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)
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)
Erik Mahowald chooses Chauvet for Subtronics residency at the Shrine
An Erik Mahowald lighting design complemented the music during American DJ/producer Subtronics’ six-night residency at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Mahowald and his team at Bending Lite Productions used 160 Colorado PXL Curves and 76 Color Strike M motorized strobe-washes, both from Chauvet Professional, in his transformative design. These fixtures, like the rest of the rig, were supplied by 4Wall Entertainment.
Sometimes during the show, the big room was divided vertically by color - for example with purple radiating down from the roof, and blue rising up from the floor. At other times waves of color moved from different parts of the room and met in the middle. This color shaping created a sense of movement to fit seamlessly into the moment of the music, all without relying on video.
“The idea for the stage design came from Subtronics (Jesse) wanting to perform in the round”, Mahowald explains. “Once we committed to that vision, and a no-video show, I saw it as a chance to focus on the color of our light as the main visual tool. Using fixtures like the Colorado PXL Curve helped us create dynamic, architectural looks that surrounded the whole room. Since the show was in the round, we were able to double-side all the vertical lighting trusses. This gave us large, sweeping visual moments that looked great from every angle.”
The PXL Curves were lined up on the vertical trusses both upstage and downstage, to create a fully immersive 360-degree viewing experience. The Color Strike Ms were also placed vertically, allowing each fixture face to point upstage or downstage at any moment, depending on the look the design team wanted.
Most of the show was cue-to-cue or busked live. Only a few major tracks were timecoded, including some “very intentional” intro sequences. “Our overall approach focused on spontaneity and live energy”, says Mahowald, who worked alongside Joshua Gregoire (Associate Designer), Spencer Michaels (Lighting Designer), Jake Keenan (Vibe Director & Pyrotechnics Specialist), Larry Barcello (Production Director), Max Goessing (Technical Director), Conor Gray (Tour Director), and JDLFX (Special Effects).
“The production design covered the full length and width of the Shrine”, he adds. “Jesse’s DJ booth was at the center of the room and measured 24 feet by 24 feet, this enhanced the in-the-round experience.”
(Photos: Oh Dag Yo Photo)
Technical Elements lights Emory Healthcare’s brand refresh with nearly 800 Elation fixtures
Tasked with illuminating 32 outdoor locations on an accelerated timeline, Atlanta-based event production company Technical Elements (TE) used nearly 800 IP-rated Elation luminaires to deliver Emory Healthcare’s brand refresh across metro Atlanta and Central Georgia.
The large-scale lighting installation, called “City Pulse”, was a one-night, region-wide activation that brought the new brand to life through coordinated architectural illumination. The lighting package consisted of 95-percent Elation lights, including 396 Paladin, 298 SixPar 200 IP, 55 SixPar 200, and 42 Proteus Excalibur.
To mark the launch on January 21, 2026, Emory Healthcare hospitals, clinics, and regional landmarks glowed in “innovative green”, a color representing life, healing, renewal, and hope, creating a unified and highly visible presence across the region. The new shade of green is a key element of the refreshed identity.
“Green is one of the harder colors to reproduce”, says Jake Wright, Lighting Lead at Technical Elements and lighting designer on the project. “The Paladins and SixPars were able to dial in the shade we needed while maintaining a consistent wash across every location, and the Excalibur fixtures added dramatic aerial effects at flagship sites and other locations.”
Also launching January 21 and glowing green from Elation SixPar fixtures were “Aurora Portals”, circular installations placed in high-visibility community locations. Each portal featured a scannable QR code linking to stories of innovation and discovery. Technical Elements served as the lighting provider, coordinating logistics, installation, and execution without disrupting operations at each site. Emory engaged marketing activation firm Ideas United to manage the campaign, which in turn brought on Technical Elements, a frequent collaborator on their projects.
Wright faced an unusually compressed timeline for such a large project, essentially executing architectural lighting on the fly. “The project came in over Christmas, so we had about a two-and-a-half to three-week turnaround, which is extremely short for something this size”, he says.
The fully outdoor project ran continuously for twelve hours overnight, requiring IP-rated luminaires designed to withstand all weather conditions and extended overnight use. Wright leaned on TE’s long-standing relationship with Christie Lites, working closely with account representative Charlie Pike, who recommended Elation for their IP-rated wash fixtures. Much of the gear was sourced from Christie’s Las Vegas and Nashville locations, including Paladins recently used at the Formula 1 race in Las Vegas.
“It was an unconventional approach”, says Wright. “We locked in the gear first and then started designing. Normally, you design first and choose fixtures later, but the schedule demanded the opposite. We had to make some quick decisions.”
Wright selected Paladins as the main architectural wash. “I knew a small PAR wouldn’t cut it for our primary wash light”, he explains. “The Paladins gave us the punch we needed, with diffusion available for my onsite techs to use as an option, which really made the buildings look beautiful.”
SixPar fixtures were used for accents on columns, pillars, pedestrian bridges, and other architectural details, while Proteus Excalibur beam moving heads, another recommendation from Christie Lites, were deployed at flagship locations and “Aurora Portal” sites to create eye-catching, searchlight-type beams in the sky.
TE teams used Excalibur’s Sky Motion system under manual control to create dramatic sky tracker effects. The system allows a single unit - or a group - to operate without a dedicated controller, with adjustable patterns for size, speed, and color. “Sky Motion really came in handy”, says Wright. “The crew enjoyed using it. It really got people’s attention and generated curiosity, encouraging people to see what it was all about.”
With only limited site visits possible, Wright relied on Google Maps, Street View, and photos to measure and plan fixture placement. To simplify logistics, fixtures were deployed at each site in increments of six, matching how Paladins shipped from Christie Lites. “I wanted to make it as easy as possible for the shop and logistics teams. There was definitely some guessing and hoping involved - it’s not how I typically want to design a show, but it worked”, he says, noting that sites continued to be added and cut up until the final day.
The load-in schedule was tight, with a few sites prepared the day prior and the majority handled on the day of the event. Another challenge, explains Wright, was that many sites had existing architectural lighting, which he needed to respect and avoid interfering with. “The fixture side of this project was the easiest”, he reflects. “But the logistics and project management were tough.”
The 32 sites spanned metro Atlanta and into Central Georgia, including hospitals, clinics, pedestrian bridges, and non-Emory landmarks like water towers and the AT&T building in Atlanta, all bathed in “innovation green”. While the portals remained in place for weeks, the Elation lighting activation itself was a one-night-only event.
Flagship locations - including Emory University Hospital Midtown, Emory University campus, and Emory Decatur Hospital - were staffed with dedicated lighting directors, LQs, and project managers. Five mobile crews handled smaller sites, each covering four to five locations in a single night. “It was a fun, challenging, and unique project on a fast, tight timeline”, Wright concludes. “And Christie was fantastic to work with. They worked just as hard on the back end as we did in the field.”
The crew list also comprises Dennis Frazier (Account Manager), Fernando Garcia (Lighting Tech, Midtown Project), Kenneth Wright (Project Manager, EUH Campus), Christopher Mckenna (Lighting Tech, EUH Campus), Zach Sturino (Project Manager, Decatur Campus), Noah Lucas and Jackson Bodie (Lighting Techs, Decatur Campus), as well as the city site teams’ Lighting Techs Jacquie O Rodriguez, Aymar Whistett, Samuel Sanchez, Bryce Anderson, Rashyn Washington, Ethan Mitcham, William “Rocky” Weakley, Courtney Brooks and Brady Henderson.
(Photos: Technical Elements)
Olga Lounová concerts lit with Chauvet
Martin Hruska designed the stage for singer Olga Lounová’s recent tour. Lounová is the first Czech female artist to reach the US Billboard charts. “There has been a great deal of fan interest”, says Hruska. “Our first concert was realized with great success at the O2 Universum Prague hall, which has a capacity of 6,000 people. The next step is to move her shows to venues two and three times that size.”
Hruska used 98 Chauvet Professional fixtures, supplied by Czechoslovakia-based Mastro to create flowing lighting looks for his client. Run by LD Dominik Siska on a ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium console, the lighting highlighted the many distinctive elements of Hruska’s set design.
“Due to the artist’s pregnancy, I had to simplify many things in the concert, especially her flying and her movement on floating objects”, explains Hruska. “I only kept a tilting cross with stairs and a railing that she could climb onto without fear. The choreographer had to simplify the choreography, basically Olga did not have any major choreographic movements and we transferred all the movement to the dance company.”
Discussing the automated cross set piece, Hruska says: “The cross seemed to me to be the optimal simple solution to scaling the set to accommodate Olga’s pregnancy. It is an interesting shape. We had an LED screen mounted on it, and it moved with four motors. I created stairs with equally high and deep steps, which were attached to the upper part of the cross and allowed a 45-degree tilt in both directions.”
“This allowed me to achieve two different scenes: the cross could be tilted with the screen forward and the artist standing on it, or the cross could be tilted in reverse so that the stairs could be seen from the audience’s perspective as the artist climbed up”, continues Hruska. “There was also a third option with a reduction that would allow the artist to stand on the horizontal position of the cross and float above the stage. I eliminated this during the preparations due to the advanced stage of the artist’s pregnancy. To sum it up, the cross combined with the LED in the background allowed me to create more interesting effects.”
Adding a sense of depth to Hruska’s effects was his fusion of video and lighting. Relying on color matching and carefully coordinated movements and brightness levels, he ensured that video imagery and lighting worked together to provide an immersive backdrop to his client’s performance.
During the song “Dark Water” Hruska and Siska created an “underwater world” on stage by coordinating colorful light with video images of fish swimming and jellyfish rising. “I also used jellyfish as real props in the foreground of the image, and thus a 3D realistic scene of the underwater world materialized”, notes Hruska. “In the middle of this scene was Olga and a tilted cross.”
Providing colors for this vivid panorama were 28 Color Strike M motorized strobe-washes, 22 Colorado PXL Curve battens, twelve Rogue R2X Beams, and twelve Maverick Storm 3 BeamWashes. Adding extra punch to the design at key moments and delivering audience lighting were 24 Strike Array 2 fixtures, flown on the downstage truss.
Siska used many of these fixtures to outline the contours of Hruska’s design. For example, sixteen of the Color Strike M fixtures were positioned on the floor in a semi-circular layout, following and accentuating the outline of the stage decal, while eight of the Colorado PXL Curve 12 motorized battens were mounted on the cross-set piece to accent its shape.
The remaining fixtures were distributed along the sides of the stage and the upstage edge. Siska positioned the Rogue R2X Beams evenly at the rear of the stage, behind the band. “The beams were primarily used to enhance the show’s dynamics, adding energy and visual impact throughout the performance”, says Siska. “The Maverick Storm 3 BeamWash fixtures were used to illuminate the band and dancers, with eight units mounted on the front truss and four units positioned on the floor at the sides of the stage.”
(Photos: Chauvet Professional)
Wharfedale Pro XLA and WLA systems used under extreme alpine conditions at Lauberhorn
This year’s Lauberhorn winter event in Switzerland featured a Wharfedale Pro sound system across key race and hospitality zones, with XLA and WLA series line arrays selected to deliver announcements and music coverage in one of Europe’s most demanding outdoor environments.
The system was supplied and deployed by Stagepro Technical Solutions S.R.L of Studen, Switzerland, working together with Swiss distributor Sacher Music. High altitude, sub-zero temperatures and wind exposure defined the brief. With operating conditions between -15°C and -20°C and wind risk planning up to 150 kph, the audio design prioritised intelligibility, stability and consistent coverage across multiple audience areas.
On the main slope, Wharfedale Pro XLA series arrays formed the core PA system, projecting race commentary and programme audio across exposed open areas. The configuration was designed to maintain vocal clarity and tonal balance despite changing weather and wide listener distribution. In the lower arena, pairs of WLA-112 clusters covered around 1,500 spectators, providing focused coverage for announcements and music while keeping levels controlled and even across the audience zone.
The VIP hospitality tent required a different approach. Here, Stagepro deployed a flown combination of XLA and WLA-112 elements around the main screen structure to achieve smooth, even coverage within the enclosed space. This allowed speech to remain highly intelligible while music added energy and atmosphere without becoming intrusive or tiring for guests.
Amplification across the site was handled by Wharfedale Pro DP-2200N and DP-4100N amplifiers, offering Dante control and monitoring under continuous load. System transport and rigging logistics were also challenging, with subwoofers being removed from the mountain by helicopter after the event build-down.
(Photos: Wharfedale Pro)
Crt Birsa uses ChamSys MagicQ Stadium Connect for Nina Puslar anniversary concert
When it came time to mark her twentieth anniversary in the music business, Slovenian singer-songwriter Nina Puslar celebrated the occasion in her tiny hometown of Ivancna Gorica. Fans overflowed the local football field where the concert took place, many more of them than there are residents in this central Slovenian village.
Puslar’s performance was supported by a Greta Godnic set design and a light show by Crt Birsa of Blackout Design that he ran on his ChamSys MagicQ Stadium Connect. “The entire light show acted as an extension of Nina Puslar’s music, from the intimate ballads to guitar riffs very close to rock music”, says Birsa.
“My colleague at Blackout, Amadej Superger, normally does shows for Nina”, he continues. “I had to scale his concepts. I took his colors, time code, cues and make them fit this particular event, remaking cues, and effects etc. The ChamSys Group Cues was a big help in this project. Actually, I cannot imagine program a show like this in the old ‘individual cues’ way.”
Birsa programmed the 36-universe show in his Blackout studio using a ChamSys desk and rand onsite with his MagicQ Stadium Connect. “The show was 95-percent pre-programmed”, he shares. “There is no other way in modern productions with so many fixtures. It was pre-programmed in Wysiwyg, which really works well with ChamSys. Using focus points in Wyg helps a lot because you can transfer the pan/tilt information from Wysiwyg to ChamSys so you can spare quite some time when focusing lights.”
In addition to set designer Godnic, Birsa worked alongside Klemen Krajnc of Blackout Design and production manager Rok Lozar. Together, they created the show, with light emanating for circular and triangular truss structures heading out in every direction.
(Photos: Matic Kremzar Photo/Nejc Fon)
Robert Juliat’s Arthur LT selected for “My Favourite Broadway”
When South African lighting designer Oliver Hauser worked on Jonathan Roxmouth’s “My Favourite Broadway” last year, he incorporated two manually operated Robert Juliat Arthur 1014LT followspots. The show, produced by Howard Events with event technical supplied by Multi-Media, ran from July 25 to August 3, 2025, at Johannesburg’s Teatro at Montecasino.
“My Favourite Broadway” featured songs from some of the world’s best-loved musicals, including “The Phantom of the Opera”, “Les Misérables”, “Evita” and “My Fair Lady”. Actor and singer Roxmouth was backed by the 32-piece Egoli Symphonic Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Adam Howard, delivering a large-scale, live musical theatre experience.
Multi-Media supplied the technical solutions for the show, with everything from L-Acoustics L-ISA Hyperreal technology and a fully integrated production with audio, lighting and video all tracking the artist in sync using Modulo Pi KineMotion. When it came to considering the followspot system, Roxmouth preferred a manual approach instead of an automated system for the production. Having worked as a followspot operator himself, Hauser understands the demands of the role. “A good followspotter needs control, timing and awareness”, he says. “It’s a skilled job, and it carries a lot of responsibility.”
Hauser explains that the decision to go with a manually operated followspot came down to a few practical and creative reasons. “Neither of us had used a fully automated followspot system as the main key light before, and we were cautious about relying on sensors for something so critical”, he says. “There was also the question of style. Jonathan’s blocking can be quite fluid, and human-operated followspots respond more naturally to that.”
Another factor was the operator’s ability to adapt in real time. “A skilled followspotter can adjust instantly if something changes - whether it’s movement, timing or emotion. That flexibility is hard to replace.” Speed and accuracy were also part of the discussion, as well as the desire to keep people involved in the process. “At the end of the day, we didn’t want to replace a human operator”, Hauser adds. “For this show, having someone behind the light made sense.”
(Photos: Lauge Sorensen)
UVLD’s David Seitz lights Prestonwood’s “The Gift of Christmas” with Elation Paragon
Each December, Prestonwood Baptist Church transforms its Plano campus in Texas into the setting for one of the largest holiday productions in the United States. This year the presentation was powered by Elation’s Paragon LED profile fixtures.
With over 1,200 cast and crew members, live animals, flying performers, massive scenic elements, and nearly two hours of nonstop music and storytelling, “The Gift of Christmas” is a signature seasonal event for thousands of attendees. For the 2025 production, Lighting Designer David Seitz (UVLD) relied on fifty Paragon M fixtures to help bring the visually complex presentation to life.
UVLD creates lighting designs for corporate events, television, and special events and has been a long-time creative partner of Prestonwood. “This show is always evolving”, says Seitz. “We work on it basically year-round. We’re constantly tweaking and refining it, so having fixtures that give us flexibility is critical.”
Seitz, who has worked on the production for more than a decade, led the lighting design alongside UVLD colleagues Technical Director Greg Norgeot and Production Designer Matt Webb. Webb, who grew up attending the church, has been involved in the production for decades, including serving as a former lighting designer.
Staged in Prestonwood’s 7,000-seat worship center, “The Gift of Christmas” spanned fourteen performances plus rehearsals and incorporated actors, dancers, choir and orchestra, flying drummers, live camels, donkeys, alpacas, peacocks, and immersive large-scale projection and video content.
The production unfolded in two distinct parts. The first embraced a bold, colorful North Pole theme featuring Santa Claus and high-energy musical numbers. The second transitioned into the story of Jesus, culminating in a live nativity scene. “We might go from 1,000 people on stage to a moment where there’s one performer in the middle of the audience singing”, Seitz explains. “It’s powerful in both ways - whether it’s a huge cast and orchestra or a single soloist.”
For this year’s show, UVLD revamped parts of the lighting system and now runs a nearly 100-percent LED rig. Working closely with longtime rental partner Gemini Light Sound and Video of Dallas - part of Live Events Productions - the team evaluated inventory options and selected the Paragon M. The Paragon fixtures, supplied by Gemini, formed the backbone of the overhead rig, appearing across six trusses from downstage to upstage. “They were front and center”, says Seitz. “They basically replaced a traditional profile system and became a do-it-all fixture for us.”
Seitz had early exposure to the Paragon during its development, providing feedback on prototypes before its official release. “Nick Saiki at Elation brought me in early on”, he recalls. “I got to see the iterations, from where it started to where it ended up.” Before committing to the fixtures for the show, Seitz visited Gemini to review the final production units.
One of the Paragon’s standout features for Seitz is its TruTone variable CRI system, which can adjust from CRI 73 to CRI 93. “We’d tune it up to 90 CRI when we wanted beautiful skin tones, then tuned it down when we wanted more punch”, he says. “Having that option was huge.” This flexibility proved essential in a production that ranged from theatrical storytelling to high-energy EDM-style numbers.
For a production built to maintain its technical infrastructure for years to come, adaptability was key. “We’re intentional about how we allocate both budget and programming resources”, notes Seitz. “When we integrate new fixtures into the rig, we expect that investment to serve us reliably for eight to ten years.”
The show’s 160-foot-wide stage featured massive projection panels that stretched its length and were 34 feet high, forming a curtain and canvas for video mapping and scenic visuals. Combined with layered scrims and LED walls, the environment presented significant lighting challenges.
One new number introduced this year involved multiple projection scrims with performers positioned behind them. “It was tricky because we were creating this 3D environment between the LED wall in the back and the scrims that are layered in”, says Seitz. “We needed lights that could go from precise framing cuts to side light and backlight instantly. The Paragon could do that.”
They then used the same lights to illuminate around the scrims for textured gobo looks. The fixtures’ framing shutters, animation wheel, and gobo system allowed for rapid transitions. “We’d go from big gobo moments to narrow cuts on a scrim, then immediately back to lighting people”, Seitz explains.
He explored nearly every feature of the Paragon M throughout close to 5,000 lighting cues. “There isn’t a single element in those fixtures that went untouched”, he says. “They handled everything - beamage, scenic breakup, aerial effects, animation, and performer lighting. With the show in constant motion, the rig needed to be extremely flexible.”
Beyond lighting design, UVLD played a broader role in overseeing the production, working closely with Prestonwood’s staff and volunteer-based technical teams. Seitz also collaborated closely with the show’s composer, Jonathan Walker, integrating original music and lighting at a technical level. “He writes with lighting in mind”, says Seitz. “For our ‘Drummer Boy’ number, which has flying drummers fly over the audience, I take MIDI triggers from the drummers and manipulate lighting in real time. It’s amazing to be part of those creative decisions.”
Apart from Seitz, Webb and Norgeot, the team also included Nick Deel (Production Electrician), Michael Olivarez (Assistant Electrician), Scott Essancy (Assistant Electrician), Bryan Bailey (Prestonwood Baptist Church Director of Media), Rodney Bailey (Prestonwood Baptist Church Lighting Technician), Matthew Hughes (Follow-Me Department Lead), Amber Hess (Follow-Me Operations), Ben Coleman (Follow-Me Technician), and Follow-Me Operators Bill Mantz, Bill Russell, CG Maclin, Erin Priddy, Mark Holloway, Michael Fuhrman, Soma Badugu, Stephen Brown and Tayden Pendleton.
(Photos: Iris Lee)
Mad About Video chooses Lightware’s MX2 matrix switcher for “Tosca” at Teatru Astra
Mad About Video is a specialist in video for live events and installations throughout Malta. The company’s long-running partnership with Lightware began in 2014 when Mad About Video co-founders Gerald Agius Ordway and Alex Magri first encountered Lightware’s equipment through Italian rental partners.
“When we formed the company, we used to rent equipment from Italy, and it was there that I saw my first Lightware matrix switcher”, recalls Ordway, Director at Mad About Video. “I have used Lightware ever since.”
The annual opera at Teatru Astra on the island of Gozo has become one of Mad About Video’s regular projects, with the company supporting the production for more than a decade now. Each October, the theatre hosts an opera known for its ambitious staging and large-format video integration. In 2025, it was the turn of Puccini’s “Tosca” to grace the stage.
For this project, Mad About Video supplied four Epson projectors, two Disguise media servers - one operating as the main playback system and the other running as a backup - and Lightware’s MX2 system for the handling of all signal management, along with OPTJ extenders for long-distance transmission.
“We’ve been doing this show for over ten years, and there’s always a large video element,” says Ordway. “We provide the projectors, we create all the video content, and Lightware handles all the signal transmission between the media servers and projectors.”
The creative brief for the opera called for a background projection covering the full upstage wall, complemented by an additional front projector used to layer textures, materials and create artistic effects. The goal was to create moods through visual effects, in turn helping to craft an emotional atmosphere for the performance. Mad About Video developed all video content and the team arrived on site a week before rehearsals to create and assemble the technical environment directly in the theatre.
The system design relied on a Lightware MX2-8x8-HDMI20-L matrix switcher. For long-distance transmission, the Mad About Video team utilised Lightware’s HDMI20-OPTJ-TX90 and RX90 optical transmitter and receiver extenders. This ability for long-distance transmission was crucial because the front-of-house control position sat around 35 metres from the stage, and the actual cable path extended far beyond that.
“The path was very long for the cables”, says Ordway. “Usually, we need 120 metres to arrive at the location, but in this setup, we were using over 150 metres of fibre. The Lightware OPTJ units handled the signal transmission perfectly.”
The same backbone was also used to feed an additional projector dedicated to powering the opera’s subtitles. Mad About Video cites Lightware’s continuous product evolution as one of the reasons for their continued loyalty to the brand, such as the recent updated support for 5K resolutions. “The new 5K support will be increasingly relevant for us”, Ordway notes, “as installations grow in complexity and our work in museums demands higher-resolution displays.”
(Photos: Lightware Visual Engineering)
Jack Kelly and Ben M. Rogers help Saadiyat Nights launch 2026 season with Chauvet
On January 9, 2026, Saadiyat Nights launched its 2026 concert season with performances by Diana Ross and Seal. To illuminate the event in Abu Dhabi, UAE, lighting designers Jack Kelly and Ben M. Rogers used a collection of 138 Chauvet Professional fixtures.
“Our primary objective for the festival this season was to develop a lighting scheme that offered maximum versatility for a diverse roster of incoming artists while aesthetically complementing the architectural lines of the stage”, Kelly says of the lighting rig.
Given that Saadiyat Nights is a 10-week outdoor residency, having IP65 rated fixtures was a must, according to Kelly. “It was non-negotiable”, he says. “When compared to other weather-protected options on the market, we felt the Chauvet fixtures offered the most robust build quality and the best performance metrics available for a production of this scale.”
“We maintained a rigorous focus on detail during both the design and installation phases”, he continues. “To ensure a seamless and robust production, we implemented comprehensive system backups and redundant signal paths to keep the system as stable as possible.”
The rig featured 32 Maverick Storm 2 Profiles, thirty Maverick Storm 2 BeamWashes, 38 Color Strike M motorized strobe-washes and 38 Rogue Outcast 1 BeamWashes. Working in harmony with this lighting were a 14 m wide by 7 m high main video screen and two 8 m wide by 6 m high IMAG screens.
As for Diana Ross’s performance, her longtime designer Ben M. Rogers explains: “I deployed my touring setup where the lighting console drives all parameters of the media server layers to ensure I maintained a consistent visual image. The visuals for Diana Ross were curated with her and set a clear visual palette for each song.”
“With the MediaMaster server, I then refined and adjusted color, and playback on content in the same way I did the lighting rig to maintain the balance of color and contrast throughout”, he adds. “With the backup band in pure white outfit, rich colors framing the performers, and Ms. Ross being as warm and elegant as ever, we rocked the stage, helping this stunning venue begin its 2026 season in beautiful fashion.”
(Photos: Chauvet Professional)
