Shutter Cut Lighting Design turns a growing need for broadcast-ready audience lighting into a permanent, flexible part of the Bowl’s seasonal lighting system.
At the Hollywood Bowl, 16 ROXX E.SHOW maxx TW+ fixtures have become part of Shutter Cut Lighting Design’s seasonal lighting system. Hung on the two FOH towers at house left and house right, they provide bright, even coverage of the audience for broadcasts and live tapings, while giving lighting designers Tyler Glover and Tyler Lambert-Perkins the option to extend color and atmosphere from the stage into the house.
A permanent answer to a growing need
Lighting the Hollywood Bowl is less about designing for a single show than building a system that can accommodate an entire season. Setup and maintenance begin in March, as the first concerts take place as early as late April or early May, well ahead of the LA Phil’s official season opening in June. From there, the underlying plot has to work for a wide range of incoming artists and productions.
In recent years, broadcasts and live tapings have added another requirement: enough light in the house to ensure the audience remains clearly visible on camera. Shutter Cut had previously brought in additional fixtures for those productions. Looking for a more permanent solution, Glover and Lambert-Perkins eventually landed on the E.SHOW maxx TW+.
“For an outdoor venue like the Hollywood Bowl, we needed a fixture that was weatherproof, bright, and true to color,” says Tyler Glover. “The E.SHOW maxx TW+ has delivered on all three. They’ve become the backbone of our in-show audience lighting and how we transport the whole house, turning a show onstage into something everyone is part of.”
The choice came down to a combination of practical requirements. An IP rating was a non-negotiable for the outdoor venue, but Shutter Cut was equally focused on build quality, output, CRI and overall quality of light. The optional honeycomb was another deciding factor, allowing the designers to control glare while still putting sufficient light into the audience.
The fixtures were supplied by Inner Circle Distribution (ICD), ROXX’s exclusive U.S. distributor, which handles sales, distribution and support for the ROXX portfolio across the United States.
“The Hollywood Bowl is one of the most iconic live entertainment venues in the U.S., so having E.SHOW maxx TW+ become part of its seasonal lighting system means a great deal to us,” says Tim Obermann, Business Development Manager at ROXX. “We’re very fortunate to have Inner Circle Distribution as our partner in the U.S. Their market knowledge, relationships and local support have been a major part of our growth here.”
“Working with Shutter Cut and VOLT on such an iconic venue is an humble honor and privilege for us all.” says Adam Camp, Western US Regional Sales Manager at Inner Circle Distribution. “Seeing E.SHOW maxx TW+ shine and illuminate the audience at Hollywood Bowl certainly shows the bar of top-tier quality and value we offer to our customers in Live Broadcast, Film and Live Events around the United States.”
Sixteen fixtures cover the house
The amount of coverage proved to be one of the surprises of the installation.
“We originally specified more fixtures than we ended up needing, expecting it would take about twice as many to light the entire audience,” says Tyler Lambert-Perkins. “With correct lensing, we’ve been pleasantly surprised that the 16 we have create sufficient coverage of the entire house.”
Integration of the E.SHOW maxx TW+ fixtures was handled by Burbank-based entertainment lighting company VOLT, with Grant Dunn overseeing the integration. VOLT provides production rentals, sales, integration, previz and repair services for entertainment productions. The Hollywood Bowl project also follows an earlier connection with ROXX: in 2025, VOLT added a significant quantity of ROXX NEOs to its inventory, with a second major investment in NEO lites following in 2026. “We’re proud of our ongoing partnership with the Hollywood Bowl and Shutter Cut Design,” says Grant Dunn, Director of Integration at VOLT. “It is amazing to be part of the evolution of such an iconic venue.”
The E.SHOW maxx TW+ pairs an 800W RGBALC single-source LED engine with interchangeable circular and elliptical lenses, allowing the beam to be adapted to different throws and coverage requirements. Its IP65-rated housing makes it suitable for indoor and outdoor use, while the honeycomb used at the Bowl helps keep spill and glare under control.
Installation and focusing proved straightforward. Programming required more initial work, however, as Shutter Cut chose to run the fixtures in direct mode for full control of the individual color channels. Because the E.SHOW maxx TW+ is the only fixture type in the rig with that many color channels, building presets and matching it to the existing RGBA fixtures took some time.
Since getting the system fully operational, Shutter Cut says the fixtures have performed very well in regular use.
Color that works for camera and show
At the Bowl, however, output alone was not enough. For Shutter Cut, the audience light also had to reproduce well on camera and blend convincingly with the rest of the rig.
The E.SHOW maxx TW+ combines red, green, blue, amber, lime and cyan emitters, with a CRI of up to 97 and TLCI of up to 98. The fixture offers a variable white range from 2,000K to 10,000K, along with high-resolution 16-bit dimming and selectable PWM frequencies up to 25 kHz for camera applications.
Once dialed in, the designers found the color quality particularly convincing: “We’ve really appreciated the color and brightness of these fixtures,” says Glover. “Being able to create both soft pastels and punchy, rich colors has made them incredibly versatile.”
That range matters because the fixtures are not used the same way for every show. A subdued orchestral performance may call for little to no audience lighting, while more energetic productions can use the E.SHOW maxx TW+ extensively to draw the audience into the visual language of the show.
Beyond the stage
“When a show becomes more than just a presentation onstage, but rather envelops the entire audience, we believe it becomes a true experience,” says Lambert-Perkins.
A performance by The Tabernacle Choir in June put that idea into practice. With 16 cameras covering both stage and audience, Shutter Cut relied heavily on the ROXX fixtures to maintain a consistent lighting level across the house. That kept the audience available for reaction shots throughout the performance, while the soft, even coverage remained unobtrusive enough not to distract from the stage.
What began as a permanent answer to a growing broadcast requirement has become something broader within the Bowl’s seasonal lighting system. The E.SHOW maxx TW+ can put the audience on camera when needed – or pull the audience into the world of the performance, when the design calls for it.
Photos © Shutter Cut Design