
Lighting the Louvre for David Guetta posted: 08/01/2021
It was the gig of show designer / director Romain Pissenem's dreams!
Global music superstar David Guetta, France's most iconic DJ and music producer playing a unique set live at one of the world's most visually, architecturally, and historically impressive site-specific locations, Musee du Louvre in central Paris Celebrating the monumentally symbolic roll-over from 2020 to 2021 in this breath-taking environment with style, cool, poise and some superlative dance beats, 116 x Robe iPointe moving lights on the rig helped make it THE New Year's Eve livestream to remember from the year THAT WAS.
It was also the third in David Guetta's United at Home concert series to raise money for those in need in what's been a universally tough year for everyone.
Romain and his UK and France based creative production company High Scream were also the stream's executive producers, working directly for the artist and collaborating closely with staff from The Louvre. The 15-camera stream was directed by Job Robbers.
Romain's team included lighting designer Ian Tomlinson and lighting programmer and operator James Betts Grey.
Guille GS
His starting point for the production design was the beautiful 21.6-metre-high glass and metal pyramid structure designed by architect I M Pei with its 603 rhombus shapes and 70 regular glass triangle segments, a timeless contemporary masterpiece that defines the Louvre's main courtyard.
While Romain and High Scream have been producing David Guetta's live shows for the last couple of years, working on a show of this stature and significance took everyone to new levels of show production.
For Romain, a truly international citizen, this show was also an emotional snapshot for an incredibly proud Frenchman.
Guille GS
The biggest challenge was to respect the wonderful aesthetics and integrity of this very special space and add in a complex, high-impact, show-stopping electronic music show capturing the sheer magic of this incredible moment, commented Romain.
The pressure was on for everyone involved to impress an audience of approximately 16 million who joined the stream from literally every corner of the globe!
Throughout 2020, High Scream has designed and produced a steady trickle of broadcast and streaming projects, all of which have enabled Romain to get savvy about how to bring the visual atmospherics and excitement that are a given with live audiences - to screens large and small anything from a smartphone to a massive LED wall - providing a cascade of goosebump moments for viewers.
Guille GS
After much consideration, Romain decided they would hit the right vibe with lighting and lasers as the media to create layers of optical excitement, however they also supplied camera director Job with a collection of custom playback video content to pepper his mix as needed!
With Guetta's DJ decks positioned centrally at the base of the main pyramid - a 34-metre-wide expanse - it was clear from the outset that the aesthetics precluded having any trussing or metal structures in view, so all lighting was positioned in a matrix arrangement on the floor radiating outwards from the decks.
The 116 x iPointes were the primary lights of the show.
They looked stunning as their intense beams sliced dramatically through the rain and night sky radiating the incredible energy and sounds being created by the artist.
iPointes were chosen for their brightness, features and durability. For the geometry and style of the production design to work, protective domes were out, so they needed to be robust water-resistant fixtures as no one had any illusions about the Parisian weather in December!
Sure enough apart from a brief pause for around 10 minutes at the start of Guetta's set, it rained persistently all evening, turning to sleet and ice-rain towards the end of his incendiary hour-long performance which was brutally cold but ensured the light beams looked even more awesome!
The iPointes were arranged in a series of carefully crafted linear lines creating a triangle shape mirroring the elevation and angles of the main pyramid. Effectively an ocean of lights in front of the DJ booth, which evoked the dynamic look that was fundamental to the design working from all the camera angles and was especially cool on the drone shots!
The courtyard also has two smaller glass pyramids and seven triangular-shaped water features flanking the main pyramid all providing additional surfaces to reflect and refract light, together with the rain that further amped up the overall moodiness with additional atmospheric twists.
Four hundred and thirty-two lights were utilised in total.
To these Romain added some subtle lasering on the pyramid itself, with 20 x 30-Watt lasers shooting up and across the structure producing subtle highlights, disturbance and glitch effects which looked great on camera.
Lighting and audio equipment were supplied by S Group, a regular High Scream show and event technical partner, with the lasers from Laser Fabrik.
The stream was broadcast live on various platforms including Facebook, Instagram TV, Twitch, YouTube, and numerous TV channels.
Romain, who has worked on many incredible shows worldwide, commented, This was just REALLY special, particularly after a year like 2020 it was something else. We were all very honoured to be involved and for David (Guetta) to entrust his production to us. The show brought an important message of hope during this very challenging time, and we were all grateful and immensely proud to be part of it.
Having already raised over $1.5 million for charities with the United At Home events from Miami and New York, United At Home Paris was dedicated to UNICEF and Les Restos du Coeur. Donations could also be made to the Louvre
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
08/10/2026
Modern venues have come a long way since the tinny, echoing audio of the mid 20t...
08/10/2026
ESPN's first Super Bowl production will stream in English and Spanish on Disney+, while the ESPN App carries the full slate of game, ManningCast, studio, an...
08/10/2026
From high-school videoboards to War Eagle Productions, the Opelika native is learning how to lead shows and capture big moments
The future of live sports produ...
08/10/2026
The Television Academy and Prime Video have announced a six-year agreement making Prime Video the exclusive global home of the Emmy Awards beginning with the 20...
08/10/2026
Techex will exhibit at NAB Show New York 2026 (Booth 623, Javits Center, October...
08/10/2026
X Games has announced the appointment of Steve Rogers as Chief Operating Officer. Rogers previously served as COO of World Supercross and spent nearly a decade ...
08/10/2026
Fonn Group has appointed Trevor Spielmann as Sales Director for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Spielmann joins from EVS, where he held sales and business de...
08/10/2026
The flagship program will originate from major PG events with a four-camera production, live distribution across PGTV, social platforms
Perfect Game is bringin...
08/10/2026
Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. More often, it happens at the point of collision: when worlds that have run on separate tracks begin to converge. That is...
08/10/2026
For decades, the production and broadcast services business has run on a familia...
08/10/2026
Uplynk, Zixi, BroadView Software, and Grass Valley have published The IP Converg...
08/10/2026
The NFL has announced the return of the Big Data Bowl, the league's analytics competition, now in its ninth year and again powered by AWS. Registration is o...
08/10/2026
Eutelsat has renewed its partnership with T l diffusion d'Alg rie (TDA), Algeria's national broadcasting network operator, for continued distribution of...
08/10/2026
Disney will livestream Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027, alongside the game's broadcast on ESPN and ABC. All Disney subscribers in the United States wi...
08/10/2026
RHStv and Red House Streaming have announced an expansion of their partnership w...
08/10/2026
Gray Media has announced a distribution agreement with TEGNA and DAZN to simulca...
08/10/2026
SVG readers can save 10% on registration and receive a complimentary Solutions H...
08/10/2026
PROTON Camera Innovations GmbH has been named a recipient of a 2026 Technology a...
08/10/2026
Industry leaders discuss real-world cloud workflows for live game production, pl...
08/10/2026
The next-gen audio technology joins Dolby Vision as part of Apple TV's immersive F1 experience...
08/10/2026
David France, Jesse Short Bull, Mato Wayuhi, N. Bird Runningwater, Jodi Archambau, Jhane Myers, Paul McGuire, Amber Morning Star Byars, Holly Macarro, Nick Tils...
08/10/2026
Dynamic panning plug-ins get an upgrade
Sound Particles have just announced major updates for two of their popular dynamic panning plug-ins. Energy Panner 2...
08/10/2026
New expandable instrument boasts full DMNO engine
UDO Audio have just announced the upcoming release of a new, expandable synth that packs the power of the ...
08/10/2026
Two new subwoofers added to monitoring line-up
ADAM Audio's monitoring range has just been expanded with two new DSP-equipped subwoofers, the Sub8 PRO a...
08/10/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
08/10/2026
Calrec gives broadcasters freedom of choice at NAB Show New York We're looking forward to meeting up with you all at NAB New York on 21st-22nd October.
Cal...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, will showcase its next generation of media orchestration services at NAB S...
08/10/2026
Clear-Com played a critical role in the production communications infrastructure for Rock in Rio 2026, one of the world's largest and most recognized music...
08/10/2026
Sohonet Launches ClearView Rush: A Leap Forward in Studio Review, Built for Crea...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Ikegami announces a major expansion to its range of broadcast-quality live production cameras. Scheduled for introduction on Ikegami booth 708 at NAB New York, ...
08/10/2026
Calrec will be located at Booth 444.
Freedom to choose
The media landscape is evolving quickly, and the broadcasters best placed for what comes next will be...
08/10/2026
LiveU has announced that CRD Audiovisuel relied on LiveUs LU900Q intelligent production unit, with built-in native LiveU IQ (LIQ ) connectivity, to deliver live...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Marshall Electronics, a globally recognized provider of high-performance video solutions for broadcast, streaming, AV and professional production, will exhibit ...
08/10/2026
14-hour package also includes A Remarkable Place to Die season 2 as well as libr...