2017 Prolight + Sound Recap

By Luke Lytle
Apr 13, 2017, updated Apr 17, 2017
 2017 Prolight + Sound Recap

Today we are joined in the Lounge by Luke Lytle, the Director of Marketing at 4Wall & UsedLighting.com.  This was his first experience at Prolight & Sound, and we asked him to share his experience at the show with us.

First off I want to say this was not only my first time at Prolight & Sound, but it was also my first time in Europe!  Due to some scheduling conflicts, I was invited 4 days before my plane left to go to the show.  To keep a long story short, I found out the hard way you can get a Passport within a day and a half if you are willing to fly to Los Angeles to do it.  

After a long flight to Frankfurt, Germany and some serious adjusting to a 9 hour time difference (PST) I arrived at Prolight & Sound.  I've been to quite a few industry shows such as LDI, NAB, Infocomm, & Cineagear, among others.  The main thing that immediately struck me after checking in to the show was how big and spread out the show halls were. One of the halls is about the size of LDI, and there are 3 different halls dedicated to lighting!  The "& Sound" part of the show name is definitely not an afterthought.  There were just as many halls dedicated to professional audio and then there were at least 5 more halls dedicated to musical instruments (pianos, drums, guitars, etc.).  In the middle of all the halls is a very large open outdoor area with a sound stage in the middle and food booths scattered around.  

Halls 3 & 4 were dedicated to professional lighting such as Martin, Robe, ETC, GLP, Vari-Lite, Chauvet, Elation, Clay Paky, MA Lighting and many more.  Something that I noticed immediately in these halls was the amount of manufacturers dedicated to trussing, motors & staging compared to shows I've been to in the US.  There were companies I was familiar with such as Tomcat, StageMaker, and others, but then there were many more that I had never heard of.  Hall 5 was dedicated to DJ & Effect lighting filled with lasers, pyrotechnics and other effect lights.  

There were two lighting demos I would like to give a shout out to, Clay Paky & Robe.  Each built a large, enclosed area with shows every 30 minutes to an hour.  Both shows were impossible to get a seat unless you immediately grabbed a seat after the previous show ended.  There were also great demos by GLP, Elation and Ayrton. (Watch the video to see highlights from the demos and more!) 

Clay Paky's demo used video projectors to go through each of the new products they have such as the Axcor Profile 900, Scenius Unico, K-Eye HCR and the Mythos 2.  The first 10 minutes went through each product highlighting features and effects. The show then took it up a notch by switching to a programmed light show to the music of dub-stepping, violinist Lindsey Stirling.  

Robe's demo focused on the theatrical side of lighting and how some of their new products (including LEDs) are made for the theatre market.  Robe's show featured live dancers every hour set to the music of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.  Some of their new products include the DL7 & DL4, Spikies, Spiiders, and others.  

There were too many new and impressive products to go through all of them.  If there was something I found interesting, I took photos of it which you can view below.  Overall the show was exciting and had a fun vibe to it that I hadn't felt at other shows.  The manufacturer reps seemed to be less stressed even though the show was constantly packed.  Maybe it was due to the show being in Europe or more likely it had to do with the seemingly endless supply of alcohol in the booths..

2017 Prolight + Sound Photo Recap.  Click on each thumbnail for a larger image.

Altman Booth at LDI 2015.
     
     

 

 

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