Intelligent Lighting Creations Hits the Stage with Mary J. Blige

	The Liberation Tour featuring Mary J. Blige and D'Angelo with lighting designer, Daunte Kenner of DK Production Designs, and ILC. Photograph: Jody Benoit.

Mary J. Blige and D'Angelo teamed up to bring the R&B world, The Liberation tour. Chicago-based designer, Daunte Kenner of DK Production Design, was the creative director on this tour. He turned to Intelligent Lighting Creations (ILC) to help facilitate his vision.

Kenner is no stranger to working with Mary J. Blige. In 2006 he designed a rig for the Breakthrough Experience tour and made quite an impression on MJB herself. Wanting to top the last tour, Daunte and ILC worked together to create a gear package to meet the artistic needs and budget reality. The entire lighting rig was built at ILC's production facility located in Arlington Heights, Illinois allowing the designers to pre-program the system before loading in the first show in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The details, planning, and prep put into this project contributed to the smooth load in at every venue.

ILC also provided a significant amount of gear for this tour as well as our tour electricians to ensure everything runs smoothly and the equipment is maintained on the road. The gear list consisted of Clay Paky Sharpys, Martin Mac Auras, VL1100, VL3000 Spot, VLX, VL3500 Wash, HES DL3, Jarag-5, Atomic 3K, DF-50, GrandMA2, GrandMA2 Lite, NPU, CM chain hoists, Tyler GT and James Thomas Super Truss. Currently, the tour is running nationwide. The first leg wrapped up at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 15.