Entertainment Systems

Contemporary concerts represent a fine case-study of just how effective the creative deployment of light can be. Although very energy intensive, lighting at concerts is integral to achieving and maintaining an audience mood that correlates to the music itself.

There has been no small degree of controversy involving light at concert events. During Billy Joel's ground breaking tour of the then USSR the Piano Man can be seen to go ballistic when the lighting engineers refused to dim the house lights, effectively preventing the crowd from losing its inhibitions and thereby stifling the whole experience. Likewise, Metallica concerts, famous as high-intensity events, represent attempts at crowd control when nervous concert halls bring up the house lights just as the crowd is beginning to get into the groove.

Three components combine to create intense lighting effects at concerts. They are a degree of darkness, fog or haze, and lasers. The haze suspended in the darkness permits the laser signals to appear as stiletto lines, carving the air in time to the music. Pink Floyd has been notorious over their 40-year career as pioneers of concert lighting. Indeed, lighting can facilitate a near trance like state in those present as it melds with the sounds thereby providing the opportunity to experience a union of sensory experience in the minds of the concert goers.