Vietnam – The ‘Lighting the Stars’ series of conferences featuring internationally renowned lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe landed in Ho Chi Minh City in November with the aim of celebrating lighting and discussing its future.
The event, which was organised by Vietnam ProAVL Co. Ltd alongside Claypaky and MA Lighting, presented Woodroffe to an audience keen to hear first-hand about his thirty-year career at the forefront of live music, event, architectural and theatre lighting design.
Indeed, Woodroffe has designed the lighting for a diverse array of big-name projects, from the London Symphony Orchestra to ABBA, from the Rolling Stones feature film Shine A Light to the Vanity Fair Oscars party to Prince Charles’s Highgrove House gardens. His achievements are remarkable.
This latest Lighting the Stars seminar was held at the New Music Center in Ho Chi Minh City. Guests heard Woodroffe discuss both the past and the future of lighting in all its forms – music, dance, live performance, architecture and art.
He went on to share stories about his experiences designing the lighting for the London Olympic Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies in 2012, and his work on Michael Jackson’s This Is It tour, which was tragically cancelled after Jackson’s untimely death in 2009. Woodroffe’s design was immortalised in the film of the same name, which focused on preparations for the tour.
The conference excited the audience, who were thrilled to hear about Woodroffe’s life in light and take part in a Q&A session after each section.
In addition to the seminar, guests were invited to experience the latest fixtures from Claypaky. Mirco Segatto from Claypaky hosted a showcase of the Axcor range: the Axcor Profile 600, the Axcor Profile 400 and Axcor Spot 400 and the Axcor 300 Spot, Beam and Wash. Also, some units of the new Sharpy Plus – the successor of the legendary Claypaky Sharpy – were shown on the stage.
“The Lighting the Stars event in Vietnam offered a great opportunity to demo the products of the Axcor range and how together, these multi-feature fixtures provide a complete toolkit to lighting designers,” says Alfonso Zarate Takano, the Claypaky Sales Manager for the APAC area. “At the same time, they present an attractive commercial opportunity for rental operators worldwide, as a finely engineered, versatile equipment choice which meets the requirements of the widest range of productions and applications.
“Our showcase attracted a lot of interest from rental houses from across the South East Asia region.”
Diem Truong from Hanoi-based Claypaky distributor Vietnam ProAVL Co. Ltd supplied the Axcor range to the conference, along with a host of other Claypaky fixtures including the Scenius Spot, Scenius Unico, Mythos 2, Aleda B-EYE K10 and Sharpy Plus.
Claypaky CEO, Pio Nahum, comments: “We are proud to support Patrick Woodroffe as he travels the globe promoting the importance of light and recounting his vast experience at the helm of so many world-class events. Claypaky is thrilled to be an ongoing partner of these Lighting the Stars conferences and are grateful to our regional distributors, such as ProAVL, for their support and brilliant service.”