Lighting focus: All of the lights

We explore how lighting can shine across a variety of applications – from stage to sky, museum outings to doctor visits

Words Katie Kasperson

In the audio-visual industry, lights are… a pretty big deal. Helping to elevate live performances, enhance attractions and even boost our wellbeing, lights are a versatile tool with an infinite number of applications – we get into it on the following pages.

While tungsten and other kinds of incandescent light bulbs were long the norm, LEDs have since emerged as the professional preference, able to emit bright, colour-accurate light without leaving as much of an environmental trace. Projectors are also part of the puzzle, with laser-based models proving a popular choice in sectors like corporate, education and hospitality. They can do more than light up a room; modern processes like projection mapping, for instance, will turn ordinary objects into visually dynamic displays and mundane activities into immersive experiences.

When deployed creatively, lights can enhance a story, set the mood, entertain or even communicate a critical message. We dig into five examples of innovative approaches to lighting.

Athens Epidaurus Festival

Celebrating 70 years, the Athens Epidaurus Festival is one of Europe’s longest-running cultural events. Combining theatre, music and dance, the festival showcases innovative work by both Greek and international artists.

This year, lighting designer Christina Thanasoula served on two distinct, yet equally dramatic performances – Emily Louizou’s Blindness and Phenomenon by Katerina Giannopoulou.

For both projects, she used Astera’s Titan Tubes. Enjoying its world premiere, the stage adaptation of José Saramago’s Blindness tells the tale of a sight-destroying epidemic while exploring how human nature triumphs under even the gravest of circumstances. Louizou’s version is set in an abandoned psych ward, complete with fluorescent lighting to create a sense of unease. A longtime Astera customer, Thanasoula included 24 Titan Tubes on the kit list, choosing them for their versatility and colour accuracy.

“Lighting played a key role in defining the location and assisting the action,” says Thanasoula, who wanted the stage to look ‘dirty, musty and dilapidated’. Because Titan Tubes actually have a clean, contemporary look, the set department created covers to disguise the fixtures as dingy and worn out.

Thanasoula programmed nearly 140 lighting cues for the Titans, including flickering effects and flourishes of red, green and amber. Rigged in rows to enhance depth, she also included movement effects that mirrored the show’s soundscape. “It was a fine balance of creating emotion without making it too overwhelming for the audience,” she shares. Blindness was ultimately a critical and commercial success; with all performances sold out.

Two weeks later, Thanasoula lent herself to Phenomenon, inspired by Wittgenstein’s philosophical study On Certainty and written for the stage by Greg Liakopoulos. Set primarily inside a car, with live camera feeds projected on screens, the show required a lighting design that was more akin to a classic film production.

Again choosing Astera’s Titan Tubes, Thanasoula ran the fixtures wirelessly, using them for in-car fill lighting, plus key lighting of the show’s protagonists. Thanasoula also colour-balanced the Titans in order to match the live feeds with pre-recorded video content – a ‘particularly challenging’ task.

Astera’s flicker-free operation and high CRI were essential to Phenomenon, as it was a digital work as much as a physical one. Thanasoula programmed around 80 cues in total, evoking a sense of movement to represent driving down a highway. Since the actors had to handle the lights during the show, their wireless set-up also proved critical, allowing the performers to tell an interrupted story.

Children’s Mercy Burn Clinic

Going to the hospital isn’t pleasant for anyone – let alone children. The Burn Clinic at Children’s Mercy Kansas City was looking for ways to ease the patient experience, by providing positive distractions. They landed on creating an immersive, interactive space that blends light, colour and sound, with Epson projectors playing an essential role.

When patients and their families enter the Children’s Mercy Burn Clinic, they’re met with the natural environment – birds flying and singing and colours shifting – rather than an intimidating and clinical hospital space.

The choice of this specific landscape was the result of a patient survey, in which children were asked what types of birds, music and colours they’d want to see in the clinic.

Now a finished project, patients can choose from 125 possible combinations, customising their experience for ultimate control and comfort. “Whatever they choose is projected into the treatment room,” Daniel Marx, Burn Clinic nurse manager at Children’s Mercy, told Epson. The animations are overlaid on the walls’ existing murals of trees, mountains and sunny blue skies.

Headed by design firm Dimensional Innovations (DI), the Children’s Mercy Burn Clinic display features nine Epson laser projectors – that’s six Pro L1070UNL high-lumen models and three Bright Link 1480Fi ultra-short-throw interactive laser displays.

“We know burn treatments can be very uncomfortable – especially for kids – and positive distractions are a great way to connect with patients in a unique way,” says John Coovert, solutions engineer at DI. “We were brought in to think creatively about how to engage patients authentically, thoughtfully and in a way that would be beneficial to the treatment process.

“We looked to Epson for this project because of the colour representation its projectors provide,” continues Coovert, “as well as the ultra-short-throw set-ups we can leverage. We were dealing with very little throw space, and we knew Epson would be able to help us create the impact we wanted.”

At Children’s Mercy, many patients have to undergo multiple treatments, returning to the Burn Clinic time and time again. The institution wanted to build an environment that could change over time, so that patients could have a different experience during each visit – or return to a familiar setting if they so chose. The goal was to avoid creating associations between the environment and injury.

Since its installation, the renovated Children’s Mercy Burn Clinic has been named one of Healthcare Design magazine’s ten paediatric healthcare projects to watch.

Chaoyang Paleontological Museum

Natural history museums transport visitors back in time – often billions of years into the past, to an era when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. At the Chaoyang Paleontological Museum in China’s Liaoning province, curious exhibit-goers can walk among the dinosaurs, thanks in part to Christie DWU880-GS projectors.

Located in the Jehol Biota region, which is known for its fossil discoveries from the Lower Cretaceous ecosystem, the museum recently refurbished its displays, with financial support from the Chaoyang municipal government.

Christie equipment plays an essential role in the institute’s appeal, greeting visitors in the main entrance hall as well as its various immersive areas. In the Cretaceous Dinosaur projection zone, for instance, six of the 22 Christie GS Series 1DLP laser projectors create panoramic scenes of prehistoric creatures, including a Tyrannosaurus rex, Brachiosaurus and Pterodactyl, all moving across a lush landscape as if alive.

The dino-themed projection zone is one of six themed areas included in the museum’s upgrades, delivering a mesmerising visual experience to attendees. In the main entrance hall, Christie brings the ancient Jehol Biota to life, projecting vivid imagery across a 22m curved screen and welcoming visitors on their journey into the distant past. Elsewhere, they can watch ‘water’ flow through the Waterfall projection experience zone; design their own dinos in the Magic Brush interactive zone; float through the Translucent Gauze zone; and stroll through the Glowing Dragon Walk experience zone.

Christie’s distribution partner, Jianye Display, handled the Paleontological Museum’s redesign and the installation of the laser projectors.

“The exceptional image quality and rock-solid reliability of the GS Series enabled us to craft an immersive and awe-inspiring experience that enthrals visitors of all ages,” says Ju Li, project manager at Jianye Display. “With the help of Christie’s advanced projection technology, we are able to reimagine fossil culture through the lens of modern innovation and storytelling.”

The High Road Tour

Kane Brown isn’t your typical country musician. Raised by his single mother and grandmother, he only discovered he was biracial when he was seven or eight years old. Around that same time, he took an interest in both R&B and country music – and has since made a career out of combining the genres.

Released in January, Brown’s latest album, The High Road, is the driver behind his current tour. Running through to early autumn of 2025, The High Road Tour features an impressive automated lighting design that utilises Follow-Me’s 3D tracking system.

“I was determined to make this country show look progressive and cool,” begins production and lighting designer Chase Hall. “I intentionally abandoned the typical country tropes,” wanting to complement Brown’s diverse musical style with something more dynamic. The result is a unique system comprising ‘concentric circles and sticks that form 28 unique sculptures across our 100-minute show’, according to Hall.

While the key lights aren’t automated, all the other fixtures are integrated with Follow-Me’s technology. As a designer, Hall is ‘quite picky’ about key lighting. “We need multiple fixtures tethered for long-throw colour output,” he says. “We need excellent tracking backlighting on each target and, photometrically, the spot system adjusting intensities for broadcast cameras at every point along our large arena thrust.”

Follow-Me 3D fit into these requirements, primarily used for key lighting and to track fixture positions. Given his tendency to move around the stage, Brown’s team knew they would want adjustable elevation tracking too.

“We made the Z-height elevation modifier available on a fader, alongside the internal mesh tracking for each operator,” explains Evan Rodecap, a Follow-Me programmer. Hall and Rodecap agree that Follow-Me offers flexibility and ease of use. “I can grab any light I want,” says Hall, “and it will track the performer seamlessly.”

“The product is very easy to deploy,” adds Rodecap, “and a lot of production managers are realising it’s much faster than other solutions on the market. The time-saver is being able to create one configuration for all of your lights.”

At the end of September, Brown will take his tour to Europe, ending on 10 October with a night at the OVO Arena, Wembley in London.

Boston 250

As the United States heads towards 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Boston has kicked things off early, launching an entire year of celebration with Boston 250. On 18 April, the city came alive with the sights and sounds of the American Revolution, combining colonial re-enactments with live music, a lantern procession and – of course – free Dunkin’ doughnuts. This was followed by a drone show and an illumination of Bunker Hill Monument, which commemorates the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Central to the event was drone specialist Firefly, which lit up Boston Harbor with iconic American imagery related to the Revolutionary War. Setting up shop on a nearby athletic field, Firefly launched 250 drones into the sky while 40,000 Bostonians gathered all along the waterfront.

The show aimed to detail Boston’s integral role in the revolution, from the Boston Tea Party to Paul Revere’s midnight ride, while also capturing the spirit of today’s city.

In Boston’s North End, the grassroots collective Silence Dogood lit up the Old North Church, replacing its old message (‘One if by land, two if by DC’) with a new one: ‘Let the warning ride forth once more: Tyranny is at our door’, quoting Paul Revere’s midnight message.

The group, which is committed to using public art to serve as a reminder of resistance, uses a powerful Epson projector and Mad Mapper projection mapping software to light up the city’s historically significant sites with words that still ring true today.

This feature was first published in the Sep/Oct 2025 issue of LIVE.