The new language of light

The boundaries between lighting, video and scenic design are blending. We explore how designers are using technologies and techniques to change the narrative

Words Oliver Webb

Lighting for live productions has in recent years evolved far beyond its traditional role of simple illumination, and is increasingly deployed for storytelling and experience reasons. Designers are using new fixture types, media servers and control desks in order to merge lighting with video, scenic design and interactive content. The art and science of lighting design continue to push the boundaries of how audiences see, feel and connect with the world of a production.

Astera is one of the companies continuing to innovate in this field, with a wide range of versatile, wireless, battery-powered LED fixtures designed for live events. Its latest offerings, such as Quikpunch, Quikspot, the Solabulb and also a comprehensive selection of new accessories, are engineered to achieve maximum flexibility and creative freedom.

“They emphasise portability, effortless set-up and high-quality, cinematic lighting effects, letting designers and production teams bring ambitious ideas to life quickly and reliably,” says Sebastian Bückle, chief sales officer at Astera. “Whether for dynamic stage shows or immersive installations, our products are built to deliver professional-grade results in any environment.”

Astera lights have been instrumental in a diverse array of high-profile events. Their fixtures have illuminated stages at major events such as the Super Bowl, Eurovision, fashion shows and live TV concerts. “For instance, at Super Bowl LVI, our Astera Titan Tubes were part of the lighting design that contributed to the vibrant atmosphere of the halftime show,” adds Bückle. “Our Titan Tubes were also featured in the launch event for the Porsche Macan Electric, and transformed the presentation into a futuristic fashion show experience. Their wireless capabilities, high-quality colour rendering and dynamic effects are ideal for creating immersive environments that captivate and inspire audiences both live and on-screen.”

Every installation becomes a canvas on which light tells the story, shapes the mood and enhances the connection between performers and viewers.

Shaping with Light

Lighting is coming into its own as a powerful narrative tool. Designers are using it not just to illuminate, but to convey emotion and merge seamlessly with video, scenic design and interactive elements. “Storytelling through light will only become even more immersive and dynamic, offering audiences experiences that are both visually stunning and emotionally resonant,” says Bückle.

Designers are already embracing advanced technologies to create fully integrated experiences. “Wireless, battery-powered fixtures – covering our full Astera portfolio, from the Tubes to both the Bulb and Quik families – offer unmatched flexibility for any production,” Bückle continues. “Modern media servers and intuitive control desks allow precise synchronisation between different lighting, video and scenic elements. This convergence makes productions interactive, responsive and visually striking, giving designers the tools to transform the boundaries of immersive storytelling.”

Nina Dunn is creative director at video design and engineering company Pixellux Design, whose portfolio includes King Lear, Aladdin, Shrek the Musical and Nutcracker in Havana. One of its most recent shows was Burlesque the Musical, based on the film Burlesque. The story follows a daughter’s search for her birth mother, whom she finds at the helm of a burlesque club that’s deeply in debt and facing closure. After an initial try-out in Manchester, the show ran in London’s West End over the summer.

“My remit was to add to the design in several ways: to support locations within the scenic design (depth and exteriors for example), and also to animate travel sequences that synchronised with choreography,” says Dunn. “As the story goes on and the burlesque club starts to become a more successful venue – with the help of the daughter’s talents – the space transitions to deliver an expansive concert look.”

Pixellux also had to sort a semi-permeable surface through which audiences could see the band at times. “Originally, the scenic designer had specified a gauze-covered scaffolding in front of the band to allow both visuals and transparency, but I figured that, with the sort of punchily lit numbers we had later in the show, projection wasn’t going to cut it. So, I suggested the transparent LED as an alternative,” says Dunn. “The LED screen had to be able to produce a crisp image (at a theatrical viewing distance at least).”

Pixellux opted for the Leyard CLM 10 with Colorlight Z6 Processors carrying custom optimised configurations to improve colour banding. “I would’ve loved a higher-resolution product, but we had to find the best balance between affordability and impact,” explains Dunn. “The Manchester lighting designer did make use of that, but mostly to see the band through it when desired and then to close them off when we weren’t in the club setting.”

In the West End iteration of the show, video on this surface was in closer dialogue with lighting. “I spoke with the new lighting designer about the possibilities there. With no band to light any more, he was able to design a good rig behind there so that when the high-energy club numbers kicked in, we could combine content on the screen with dynamic lighting from behind to change the space and amp up the vibe.”

Lighting the way

Dunn believes in an active dialogue between lighting, video and sound, not just in terms of sharing your ideas early on through previsualisation, but also through direct technical connectivity within the theatre. “For example, sharing actual colour value control, positional data from automation (which worked really well for the revolve in Manchester and the front gauze in London) or by using systems that can record all departments’ values for archive video,” says Dunn.

For a show of Burlesque’s nature, it’s essential to have the numbers on a timecode. “The lighting designer used a system called Cuepoints, which let him do his timecode markers against a rehearsal video,” says Dunn. “He could accurately place his cues against that and feed it straight into the lighting desk. It was helpful because we could easily review what we were punctuating together. Everyone has different ideas about what beats to punctuate!”

For Dunn, the fact that the LED screen could fly out and reveal the rig was really useful at times. “We were tracking the screen so that the image would remain unchanged even if the LED wall was flying. This meant that we could lose it as the image faded out in darkness, saving scene change time,” she explains. “During one of the numbers, the performers enter through the LED, so it was really useful to be able to keep the image static.”

Adam King is a lighting designer and, at the time of writing, is working on outdoor light trails for Culture Creative, which includes both Halloween and Christmas and consists of lighting installations as well as timecoded shows around National Trust properties and forests. His other projects include a musical called Unfortunate, which is set to hit The Lowry for Christmas.

“It’s a musical I’ve previously lit, but it’s since been re-written and is returning in a different iteration,” he says. “I’m also currently doing two comedy shows that are going on tour, an improvised show called Murder She Didn’t Write as well as comedian Stewart Lee’s Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf.”

Lighting fixtures have come a long way in recent years. “In certain situations now, they can basically act as video screens,” adds King. “Collaborating with your video and scenic designer peers is essential. You all need to be on the same page because, with recent advances in technology, your worlds blend into one more than ever before. For example, playing video content over lighting fixtures can really elevate your show. We’re also building more and more lighting into sets and giving actors more light-up props. It often then falls to us to control these, and ensure that everything works together smoothly.”

King timecodes shows wherever he can because it means carrying off a bigger, better lighting show than what he could’ve achieved before. “It allows you to really detail and finesse to exact cue points,” he explains. “Pixel mapping has also become incredibly useful. Where you used to spend lots of time building effects to do what you want, now you can simply play video content over the fixtures and pixel map them to create effects much more efficiently. Then there is more time to spend on other areas of the production, letting you design a more cohesive show.”

As we’ve seen a real rise in additive colour mixing fixtures, King describes how lighting designers have had to rethink things slightly. “With the rise of LED wash lights, it’s enabled us to get much punchier colours like deep red and blues that would simply appear dimmer beforehand,” he says. “But now, you have to pay attention to the mixture of subtractive and additive colour mixing fixtures in your rig and how to utilise them. Also, units that before would take a few DMX channels can now take up a whole universe. So where we would run DMX cables to all fixtures before, we’re now running network cables instead. It means the team requires an in-depth understanding of how these networks function.”

King argues that the LED route will continue to evolve with more and more advanced fixtures, which will open new collaborative avenues. “I think it’s very important to recognise how much more we’re relying on visualisation,” says King. “As shows become bigger and more complicated, it’s increasingly crucial to spend time in visualisation early on. Then, you can share what you’ve been doing with colleagues for comment before you even get to the venue. It gives you a good base to build from when you do get on-site, which subsequently opens up more time to finesse the finer details throughout the project.”

A spotlight on sustainability

Sustainability is now a key consideration in creative lighting. Astera’s energy-efficient LEDs and wireless, battery-powered solutions let designers reduce their power consumption and carbon footprint without compromising on quality or creativity. “In addition, Astera lights have an impressively long product life cycle, so they can be used for many years, enabling companies to make environmentally responsible choices while maintaining full creative and visual impact,” says Bückle.

Although nothing will beat the old glow of a PAR can for King, he admits it’s important that sustainability be taken into account. “This has been really noticeable on the outdoor light trails where I would say we’re almost exclusively LED now,” he says. “I also spend time looking at how we can reuse LED tape products etc where possible rather than treating them as a consumable on shorter-running shows. The growth of LED has made it easier for us to make energy-efficient decisions. Before we would need four 1K tungsten units gelled, and now we only need one LED unit instead.”

On another point, there are also debates and fears circling around AI’s impact on the industry. As designers adopt increasingly integrated systems, there is a useful dialogue to be had about this. On the subject of AI, Dunn appears circumspect, seeming positive about it while also remaining conscious of its environmental impact, given how much energy and water it takes to use AI as a system.

Generative AI is under fire due to fears that it could replace human creativity with regurgitated AI slop. “Not all AI is the same,” concludes Dunn. “We need to develop better terms to describe its usage and categorise it better. For example, the sort of AI that supports a workplace’s or system’s efficiency by eliminating mundane tasks could be useful for the creative industries. You can free up time that’s better spent improving your project’s creative output, just as the kind of integration between departments that I mentioned before enables teams to work faster, more accurately and to consider more involved concepts.

“It can amplify our capabilities. Let the dialogue continue – but quickly because this particular technological landscape is moving faster than anything I’ve witnessed before!”

This feature was first published in the Winter 2025 issue of LIVE.