The seventh Knight of Illumination (KOI) Awards have again seen record submissions for the title of outstanding lighting and video design in the sectors of TV, Theatre, Concert Touring and events. Combined with the fact that industry sponsorship and support for the event is at an all-time high, it’s clear that KOI Awards 014 will be the most coveted invite of the season.

The KOI Awards, organised by Clay Paky alongside the Society of Television Lighting Designers (STLD), the Association of Lighting Designers (ALD), and Ambersphere Solutions, will be held following the first day of the PLASA Show on the evening of Sunday 5 October at London’s Art Deco Troxy Theatre.

Submissions for each sector are now closed and the shortlist of nominations for each of the sector categories have been agreed by the judging panels as follows:

Theatre Nominations:

Dance: Natasha Katz – The Winter’s Tale, Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House; Paul Keogan – No Man’s Land, English National Ballet at The Barbican; Ed Yetton – The Little Match Girl, Arthur Pita at DanceEast, Ipswich.

Musicals: Jon Clark – American Psycho, The Almeida; Paule Constable – The Light Princess, Lyttelton, National Theatre; Adam Silverman – Urinetown, St. James Theatre.

Opera: Joachim Klein – Bluebeard’s Castle, Oper Frankfurt at Edinburgh Festival Theatre; Ian Scott – Owen Wingrave, Snape Maltings; Mimi Jordan Sherin – Rodelinda, English National Opera at the Coliseum.

Plays: Lucy Carter – Emil and the Detectives, Olivier, National Theatre; Tim Lutkin – The Crucible, The Old Vic; Andy Purves – The Believers, The Drum at Theatre Royal Plymouth and touring.

Video: David Haneke – The Fall of the House of Usher, Welsh National Opera; Tim Reid – 1984, Nottingham Playhouse and touring; Ethan Wang – Rice, Cloud Gate Theatre Dance Theatre of Taiwan, Sadler’s Wells.

TV Nominations:

Entertainment: Oli Richards – Jonathan Ross; Tom Sutherland – Britain’s Got Talent Auditions; Chris Rigby – Alan Carr Chatty Man.

Drama: David Higgs – The Escape Artist; Martin Kempton – Not Going Out; Chris Ramage – Emmerdale The Flood.

Events: Ben Cracknell – The Olivier Awards; Nigel Catmur – Children In Need Rock; Al Gurdon – Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony.

Small Studio: Dave Evans – The One Show New Studio; Hugh French – Channel 4 News; Lee Allen -Blue Peter.

Graphics: Sam Murphy / Dave Gibson – Bt Sport; Ruben Garcia – Children In Need Rock; Luke Halls Don Giovanni.

Concert Touring Nominations:

Arena: Andy Hurst – Prodigy; Cate Carter – Elbow; Chris Bushell – Arcade Fire.

Stage: Jonathan ‘Leggy’ Armstrong – Basement Jaxx; Rob Sinclair – Goldfrapp; Will Potts – Disclosure.

Events: Jonny Milmer – Jaguar; Luc Peumans – Peter Pan; Matt Button – Castrol.

Video Graphic Display: Cate Carter, Blue Leach and Paul ‘Pablo’ Beckett – Elbow; Chris ‘Squib’ Swain, Anna Ginsberg and Adam Young – Bombay Bicycle Club; Gabriel Coutu-Dumont – Justin Timberlake; John Kricfalusi – Miley Cyrus.

Sharing in KOI’s determination to forge closer ties between the world of lighting design and the lighting industry as a whole are main sponsors Osram, Ayrton, Hawthorn, MA Lighting, Robert Juliat, and XL Video.

In addition, the lighting indsutry’s support for the KOI event has flourished with 2014 seeing the welcome addition of table sponsors from every part of the industry including: AC Entertainment, Avolites, Chauvet, Creative Technology, d3, ETC, Fix8, Gallowglass, Gearsource, Green Hippo, HSL, Martin Professional, Philips Entertainment, Pharos, PLASA, PRG, Rosco, Stage Electrics, TMB, TSL and Wireless Solutions alongside main sponsors: Osram, Ayrton, Hawthorn, MA Lighting, Robert Juliat and XL Video.

“Every year for seven years we have looked forward to welcoming lighting professionals from all sectors of the entertainment lighting world to join us in recognising the outstanding creative achievements of lighting, and now video, designers on productions in the UK,” says Pio Nahum, chief commercial officer for Clay Paky. “With such an extraordinarily high standard of submissions we’re expecting to showcase the highest level of talent this year.”

As is tradition, in addition to the TV, Theatre, Concert Touring and Events Awards the Enrico Caironi Award For Lifetime Recognition will be presented to an individual whom the KOI committee feels has made an outstanding impact on the industry. Previous winners include lighting designer Richard Pilbrow in 2011, Bryan Leitch in 2012, and Ian Dow in 2013. The category is named in recognition of former Clay Paky commercial director Enrico Caironi (1947 – 2011), whose inspiration and enthusiasm created and subsequently shaped the KOI Awards.