Spectacle of Lights

Transcription

Spectacle of Lights

Dec. 2006
www.plsn.com
Spectacle of Lights
Courtesy of Walt Disney World
ORLANDO, FL — Walt Disney World, in Orlando,
has introduced “Spectacle of Lights” for the holiday
season. To accomplish this task, lighting designer
Mark O’Connor and co-designer/programmer Susan
Rose laid out more than five million LEDs and other
fixtures over 27 buildings lining Main Street as well
as one 70-foot-tall moveable tree.
The program, run by SMPTE, consists of two songs
at the moment, with the likely addition of a third.
At the moment, one song uses approximately 300
cues, while the other uses 200, and each song is only
three and a half minutes long. Specialty boxes with
dimmable relays and control cards from Animated
Lighting were also implemented, so the entire show
was completed without dimmers.
With more than five million units to control
spread over 27 buildings and more than 1000
desk channels, the WholeHog 2 reached its memory limit, which necessitated the use of a WholeHog IPC.
To see video of this show, head over to
www.plsn.com.
ESTA Secretary Erik Magnuson Dies Suddenly
ATLANTA, GA Erik Magnuson, secretary of ESTA since 1989 and owner of The Magnum Companies, Ltd. in Atlanta, Ga., died suddenly Thursday, November 30. There were
few details at press-time, but someone close to the situation reported that it was the
result of an unexpected medical issue that arose during the workday, possibly related
to a heart attack or embolism.
continued on page 5
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Vol. 7.11
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T IO e
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C ar
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Club Installs: Miami page 34
TOMCAT
Aquired
MIDLAND, TX — Mitch Clark,
president and CEO of Texas-based
TOMCAT Global, Inc., announced
November 10 that he has signed
an agreement selling the stock and
assets of the company to the UKbased Vitec Group.
TOMCAT, a manufacturer of staging and lighting support equipment
for the entertainment industry, has
called Midland its international
headquarters since the company’s
founding in 1987. The company
lists the Rolling Stones, U2, Janet
Jackson, Disney and Cirque du Soleil as clients.
TOMCAT Global is the parent
company to continued on page 5
Grinch Greets
Great White Way
For the past several years, Dr.
Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical has been running
in San Diego in the weeks leading
up to Christmas. This year it came
to Broadway with the same manic
energy with which its pre-teen
target audience approaches the
holiday. There are about 250 cues
packed into each 70-minute show,
and they do 12 shows a week —
seven of those on Saturday and
Sunday alone. Cletus Karamon,
head electrician and board op for
the show sits down with PLSN and
tells us how to make all Grinch’s
cues three times in a day. See the
full story on page 22.
Shares Ready
for Market
BOSTON, MA — Color Kinetics, Inc. has announced that it
has priced a public offering of
3,609,000 shares of its common
stock at $19.00 per share, of which
2,000,000 shares are being offered
by Color Kinetics and 1,609,000
shares are being offered by stockholders. Certain of the selling
stockholders have also granted the
underwriters an option to purchase
up to an additional 541,350 shares
to cover over-allotments, if any.
Net proceeds from the offering
are expected to be used for working capital and general corporate
purposes, including possible acquisitions of assets or businesses,
increased research and development, product development and
marketing
continued on page 12
26
The 2006 Parnelli
Awards Gala
It was a perfect night in Las Vegas.
30
45
The Year In Review
PLSN looks back on 2006.
Lo-Res LEDs
Whether in a curtain or a cube or framing the stage, our product
Gallery goes in-depth on Lo-res.
Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info
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11/30/06 10:42:08 PM
Ad info: www.plsn.com/instant-info
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TABLEOFCONTENTS
What’s New
Features
24 Vital Stats
Selecon Performance Lighting tells us
how they do it across the globe and
around the world.
30 The Year in Review
2006 offered up big moves and
big milestones.
34 CSI: Miami
[Club Scene Installation]
A stalwart gumshoe inspects the mysterious, elusive “nightclub” installation.
36 Product Spotlight
Swisson Sine Wave dimmers threaten to
take out the console.
26
Production Profile
The 2006 Parnelli Awards use a perfect evening to
recognize the best in the business.
42 Art in Design
At the heart of all the switches, buttons and knobs, inspiration still reigns
supreme, and it creeps in through only
the calmest of places.
45 Product Gallery
Lo-res LED displays bring solid images
to solid ideas.
48 ‘Twas the Night Before Curtain
Santa ain’t the only one workin’
Christmas Eve.
49 Product Spotlight
Wybron Info Trace RDM brings the
flying cars to live event lighting.
Columns
04 Editor’s Note
32
PLSN Interview
Cameron Yeary transforms the abstractions of his clients
into the manifestations of his visions.
Life lessons from a cabbie who’s
been there.
22 Inside Theatre
With rhyming couplets and a hyperactive cue sheet, The Grinch
goes Broadway.
41 Video Digerati
Frame interpolation smoothes us out.
44 Video World
Figuring out how projector lumens
stack up.
50 Feeding the Machines
If you go tradeshowin’, do some
test-drivin’.
51 The Biz
Everybody loves direct purchasing
from the manufacturer — except
the resellers.
52 Technopolis
How many universes could you
possibly need?
53 Focus on Design
Some sharp ideas on how diffusion
works.
56 LD-at-Large
The dessert has arrived, and our
conversation over sushi concludes.
Departments
5 News
14 On the Move
16 International News
18 New Products
20 Showtime
37 Projection Connection
38 Projection Connection News
40 Projection Connection
New Products
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EDITOR’SNOTE
The Publication of Record for the Lighting,
Staging and Projection Industries
Publisher
Terry Lowe
[email protected]
Editor
Richard Cadena
[email protected]
By RichardCadena
Editorial Director
Bill Evans
[email protected]
Managing Editor
Jacob Coakley
[email protected]
“T
hat thing put me out of business.”
The cab driver was pointing to
the computer on the dashboard of
his cab. On the way to the airport, he told me
the story of how he went from sign painter to
cab driver. He apprenticed for a couple of years
under the tutelage of a journeyman before becoming one himself. But when the era of computers and computer-generated graphics made
it cheaper and easier to produce billboards and
signs with a mouse and keyboard, the value of
his skills went the way of the mullet — just as the
typesetter, blacksmith and powdered wig-maker
before him.
There’s nothing wrong with driving a cab;
I would gladly do it if I had to in order to support my family. But my fear is that a changing
100.0612.04.ED.indd 4
economic environment, erosion of job skills, or
advances in technology might force me to drive
a cab — or wash dishes, mow lawns or whatever
— instead of doing what I really love to do.
that he can do work for himself, use this great
new technology and make a good living at it.
He’s been doing it for three years now, and when
he talks about it he lights up and becomes very
If you can read, listen, ask questions and use your
hands, then you can do just about anything in life.
Associate Editor
David McGinnis
[email protected]
Contributing Writers
Vickie Claiborne, Phil Gilbert, Rob
Ludwig, Kevin M. Mitchell, Bryan
Reesman Brad Schiller, Nook
Schoenfeld, Paul J. Duryee
Photographers
Steve Jennings, Bree Kristel
Art Director
Garret Petrov
A couple of days after meeting the cab driver,
I met another man who used to sell real estate.
When the market went flat he started selling
some of his personal items on eBay to supplement his income. Now he goes to auctions and
sales, buys things, and resells them on the Internet as a full-time job. He’s amazed, he told me,
animated. Still, he says, every day in the back of
his mind, he’s wondering when this gig will be up.
One day, he said, people are going to stop offering him $30 for an item he bought for $5.
When one door closes, sometimes another
one opens, and sometimes you have to force one
open. But, how can you be sure to open the right
door? How can you avoid having to open the
driver’s side door of a cab and open the door to a
job you really love?
You probably have all the right tools to do so.
It’s simply a matter of using them.
If you have eyes, use them to read and keep
up to date; learn about upcoming trends, and
find out where your future lies. Read trade publications, books, newspapers, literature, brochures
and user manuals to keep you at the top of your
game, and ride the wave of new technology.
If you have ears, use them to listen to the
voices of experience. It’s amazing what you can
learn just by listening. Seek out those who are
successful and listen to what they have to say
about what makes them so. Listen hard and listen long. Just listen.
If you have a mouth, use it to ask questions.
If you really want to learn, don’t be afraid to expose the width and depth of your ignorance.
You might think that everyone will be shocked
to learn that you don’t know everything, but the
truth is, most people aren’t concerned enough to
even notice.
If you have hands, put them to work doing
what you love to do. Get them dirty with the
grease of your trade and wash them in the water
of your sweat and toil.
If you can read, listen, ask questions and
use your hands, then you can do just about
anything in life. You can adapt to the changing times, learn how to do new things, and
find out which opportunities are available
to you.
How do you know if you are doing it right?
You have the tools for that as well. If you have a
stomach,you’ll sometimes have butterflies — not
so much that you get ulcers, but enough to know
you’re alive and that your adrenaline is flowing.
You’ll accomplish more by living on the edge of
your comfort zone and stretching yourself. If you
have a brain, it will tell you that you’re absorbing
all that you can handle. Learn to almost overdo it
without really doing so. And finally, if you have a
heart, it will tell you that you’re on the right track.
If you use the tools given to you by
your Creator, then you’ll end up shaking
your head because you can’t believe your
good fortune. If you don’t, then you might
end up shaking your head for an altogether
different reason.
[email protected]
Production Manager
Linda Evans
[email protected]
Graphic Designers
Dana Pershyn
[email protected]
Michelle Sacca
[email protected]
Josh Harris
[email protected]
National
Advertising Director
Gregory Gallardo
[email protected]
Account Managers
Holly O`Hair & Warren Flood
[email protected] & [email protected]
General Manager
William Hamilton Vanyo
[email protected]
Executive Administrative
Assistant
Dawn-Marie Voss
[email protected]
Business and
Advertising Office
6000 South Eastern Ave.
Suite 14J
Las Vegas, NV 89119
Ph: 702.932.5585
Fax: 702.932.5584
Toll Free: 800.252.2716
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Austin, TX 78749
Ph: 512.280.0384
Fax: 512.292.0183
Circulation
Stark Services
P.O. Box 16147
North Hollywood, CA 91615
Projection, Lights & Staging News (ISSN:
1537-0046) Volume 07, Number 11 Published monthly by Timeless Communications Corp. 6000 South Eastern Ave.,
Suite 14J Las Vegas, NV 89119.
It is
distributed free to qualified individuals in the
lighting and staging industries in the United
States and Canada. Periodical Postage paid
at Las Vegas, NV office and additional offices.
Postmaster please send address changes to:
Projection, Lights & Staging News, PO Box
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ON N8X 1Z1 Overseas subscriptions are available
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returned. Projection, Lights & Staging News is a
Registered Trademark. All Rights Reserved.
Duplication, transmission by any method of
this publication is strictly prohibited without
permission of Projection, Lights & Staging News.
ESTA
ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES &
TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION
12/1/06 6:18:58 PM
NEWS
Folger Theatre Back Up with Industry Help
MIDDLETON, WI —When a fire recently resulted in water damage to the theatre in the
Folger Shakespeare Library, ETC and dealer
Barbizon Capitol, as well as the stage community at large, went into high gear to make sure
that the theatre would not be dark for long.
Fabric ignited in a third-floor costume storage area above the theatre on Saturday, October 14. The fire was swiftly extinguished and
contained, but the theatre’s dimming systems
were only 20 feet away from of the fire and
were directly affected by the downpour from
the sprinkler system. The 13-year-old dimmers
had also been on at the time, in preparation for
a tech run-through of the upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and would
have to be immediately replaced.
Barbizon Capitol technician Blair Van Oot
inspected the damaged dimmers that day. On
Monday, Barbizon Systems division manager
Barry Gawinski surveyed the damage and
contacted ETC. Phil Sens and Ted Ozimek at
ETC quoted new dimmers, secured owners’
approvals on Tuesday, and set in motion the
air shipment of two ETC Sensor+ racks populated with 72 modules, with another 24 modules to arrive later by ground. The new ETC
racks were installed on Friday by contractors
from Cooper Electric and were ready that afternoon for a new tech run-through.
Eric Grims, Folger production manager
and technical director, voiced gratitude to
those who rallied around the Theatre: “There
was never any doubt about whether or not
they would be able to get us back up and running in what seemed like a nearly impossible
amount of time.”
Van Oot adds that the response of the
local stage community was also extraordinary and laudable: “Theatre techs from
almost every theatre in the area showed
up to help out with the damage and to get
the show up – Kennedy Center, Arena, Lincoln, Woolly Mammoth, Shakespeare, Signature, Center Stage of Baltimore – just to
mention a few.”
The rescheduled first preview of Folger
Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream took
place on Tuesday, October 24. Folger is confident that no lasting damage remains to
the landmark.
Erik Magnuson Dies
continued from cover
A memorial service took place Sunday, December 10 at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the new industry charity Behind the Scenes (http://
www.estafoundation.org/bts.htm), or to
the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
ESTA issued a statement saying that
Magnuson “will be greatly missed by all
of us. Our thoughts and prayers are with
his wife Linda, his son Todd and daughter Ingrid, and with the staff of The Magnum Companies.”
Public Proposed
Standards
NEW YORK — ESTA has extended the
public review period for a standards proposal, and has announced another’s deadline. The deadline for the review period for
both BSR E1.27-2, Entertainment Technology-Standard for Permanently Installed
Control Cables for Use with ANSI E1.11
(DMX512-A) and USITT DMX512/1990
Products, and BSR E1.6-1, Entertainment
Technology–Powered Winch Hoist Systems, is now December 25.
The BSR E1.27-2 draft standard describes the types of cable to be used to
interconnect products that comply with
ANSI E1.11-2004 (DMX512-A) or with USITT
DMX512/1990 in permanent installations.
The description includes definitions of acceptable cable and connector types and
the ways in which they may be used. The
draft standard and its supporting public
review materials are available at http://
www.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php.
The next meeting at which the public
comments will be considered, is scheduled
for Saturday, January 20, at the Dallas/Ft.
Worth Airport Marriott South in Ft. Worth,
Texas.
The draft standard, BSR E1.6-1 deals with
powered winch systems that do not use
serially manufactured electric chain hoists,
and is intended to establish requirements
for the design, manufacture, inspection
and maintenance of powered winch hoist
systems for lifting and suspending loads
in theatres and other places of public assembly. The public review materials are
available on the ESTA website at http://
www.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php.
For more information, please contact
Karl G. Ruling, Technical Standards Manager, ESTA, 875 Sixth Avenue, Suite 1005, New
York, NY 10001, [email protected]
TOMCAT Aquired
TOMCAT USA, Inc., TOMCAT UK, Ltd., TOMCAT de Mexico and TOMCAT’s sister company, Brilliant Stages, in Hitchen, Herts, United
Kingdom, acquired in 1998. The company
also has two distribution hubs: one in Las Vegas, Nev. and one in Nashville, Tenn., where
the company plans to expand its manufacturing capabilities.
100.0612.NEWS.indd 5
12/1/06 5:43:15 PM
NEWS
New Pre-Viz Studio Opens In Nashville Designer
NASHVILLE, TN — Bandit Lites is using system, there is no additional CAD software Partners Inc. is offering ShowViz Lite Lab to the
Cuts to
the Martin ShowDesigner (MSD) for various required. The program primarily consists of the industry, a lighting design technology intended
programming needs. Recently, Bandit added following items: Modeler, ShowDesigner, Pa- to allow designers to pre-visualize and pre-prothe Chase
a media/training room to their Nashville facil- perwork and 3-D Visualizer sections. Modeler gram light cues and effects.
ity that is equipped with a 12-foot by 20-foot
screen. The room allows lighting designers access to the software for both training
and programming.
Martin ShowDesigner (MSD) is a lighting
and set design software package. MSD allows
the programmer to create realistic set and
lighting design renderings using reflection,
transparency, lighting, shadow and smoke.
A stand-alone 3-D lighting design/control
enables designer to build libraries of objects
and set pieces. ShowDesigner includes set design, place fixtures, control fixtures, program
cues, preview, show and allows the creation of
realistic renderings of a scene. Paperwork allows print fixture layout, instrument schedule,
patch list and customizable layout. And the 3-D
Visualizer allows visualization of a variety of effects using DMX from a controller/video input.
In a related story, Hollywood-based Design
Producers, directors and production designers can view renderings in advance of
production. Renderings and animations of
light cues, including LED video effects, can be
recorded and copied for distribution for preproduction staff review.
Any and all designers are welcome
to develop and program with DPI’s experts in their dedicated ShowViz Lite Lab.
(www.ShowVizLA.com)
Niagara Views New Big Top
NIAGARA FALLS — Robe moving lights
have been specified for the Canadian premier of Cirque Niagara’s Avaia, staged in
the 60,000-square-foot Celestial Palace big
top tent at Rapidsview Park, Niagara Falls.
Avaia was created by Russian circus impresario Mairbek Kantemirov.
The Robe’s were supplied to Soundbox
Productions — who are coordinating and
overseeing the show’s technical elements
— by Robe’s Canadian distributor Intellimix Lighting and Ontario sales rep Randy
Segeren. The fixtures were specified by
Soundbox’s lighting and design team of
Tran Langford and Jeff Lavallee.
A total of 18 Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs
and 24 ColorWash 575 AT fixtures are being utilized for the show as the main effects lights.
The Robe’s are rigged off the king
poles of the tent, around the cupola grid
in the roof and also on the ground. In the
main grid hang 10 CS1200ATs and 10 CW
575ATs. Each of the two front king poles
features three 1200s and three 575s, leaving 10 lights for the deck.
The Robes — plus a large generic rig
— are controlled from a grandMA lighting
console. The show was programmed by
lighting director Cooper Smith and programmer Jason Jennings, and it is operated each day by Laura Toombs.
The tented environment is very
dusty and also subject to temperature extremities, from cold to hot. The
three-week
pre-production
period
featured an around-the-clock schedule, and the show is running for six
days a week.
Who Back
on the Road
LOS ANGELES — The Who’s world tour
has contracted a grandMA as their lighting
console through A.C.T Lighting, the exclusive
distributor of the grandMA in North America.
The tour, which has been dubbed “Uncut.
Uncensored. Unrepentant.”, features 14 B52
Syncrolites, 40 Martin MAC 2000 washes, 22
Martin MAC 700 spots, 32 four-way Molestrips,
10 ETC Source Four Lekos, 20 Coemar Parlite
LED fixtures, 10 Pixeline 1044 LED strips, 29
Atomic Strobes, and 6 Lycian M2 truss spots.
The lighting crew for the show includes
crew chief Jason “Attaboy” Stalter; lighting techs Ty Brooks, Mike Mehmert and Carl
Horahan; and Syncrolite tech Glenn Rupert.
Roy Lamb is the production manager, Scott
Williams stage manager and Aubrey Powell
video director.
Farm Aid
Back in 2006
CAMDEN, NJ — Bandit Lites was recently involved in Farm Aid 2006. The
event took place on September 30, 2006,
at the Tweeter Center at the Waterfront, a
25,000-capacity outdoor amphitheatre in
Camden, New Jersey. The show featured
Farm Aid president and founder, Willie Nelson, board members Neil Young,
John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews,
as well as Jerry Lee Lewis with Roy Head,
Los Lonely Boys, Arlo Guthrie, Gov’t Mule,
Steve Earle, Allison Moorer, Steel Pulse,
Shelby Lynne, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Jimmy Sturr & his Orchestra, Pauline Reese
and Danielle Evin.
Lighting designer Jason Robinson used Compulite Vector Blue and
Red Consoles to control equipment
for this event. His equipment included, 32 Martin MAC 2000 Profiles, 52
Martin MAC 2000 Washes, 18 Martin
MAC 600s, 22 Martin MAC 300s and 10
Coemar Halos.
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
BAHAMAS — In Casino Royale, the 21st
Bond film, 007’s very first assignment kicks off
with a high-octane chase set in Madagascar.
This opening sequence of Casino Royale
was actually filmed in the Bahamas in a derelict hotel that had never been finished and
had been abandoned for 30 years. Art director Steven Lawrence assisted the design of
the sequence using VectorWorks Designer.
Explains Lawrence.“I added our own steel
structure — designed from the ground up in
VectorWorks — to the drawing, then sent the
drawings out to the structural engineers.”
For such action packed scenes, the art
department often designs models in VectorWorks and exports them to LightWave, an animation software program intended to create
animations and fly-throughs. For this scene,
Lawrence handed the 3D model to concept
artist Julian Caldow, who animated the scene
in LightWave. Then, Lawrence compiled a
DVD containing the VectorWorks 2D drawings and 3D models of the set within the site,
along with the animations and fly-throughs.
After viewing the DVD, the director was able
to get a feel for the site before he even arrived
on location.
For Casino Royale, Lawrence used VectorWorks Designer to produce 2D drawings and
site plans to assist the production designer
and director in mapping out how action
would take place within an area and create
3D models of sets to help the team get a feel
for a set before they arrived on location. He
used VectorWorks design layers to build up
drawings and moved into VectorWorks viewport technology to block out the plans and
elevations.
Lawrence was also asked to create an
airplane from scratch for another big action
sequence in the middle of the film. The production company wanted to create a new
airplane, so the art director had to create one
from scratch, patching parts of an existing
out-of-service airliner with a new fuselage
and engines, fuel pods, etc.
Lawrence states, “We developed the airplane by first drawing the plans and elevations, and then, with the help of the 3D side
of VectorWorks, produced the 2D cross sections (profiles) for the fuselage, wings, etc.
These were then emailed to the CNC cutting
company and then taken back in house to our
model makers to start the process of building the twelfth-scale airliner. Everything was
also given to the visual effects team to start
the CGI version, too. Certain elements, such as
engines and fuel pods, were built full size in fiberglass and attached to a real ‘out-of-service’
airliner that was used for close-up filming. The
twelfth-scale model and CGI and live action
elements components were then composited by the visual effects team into what you
see on screen in the chase sequence.”
High production output and interoperability were critical for Lawrence when art
directing the set for the film’s final sequence,
which takes place in a Venetian palace.
The structure was designed to be gimbaled so it could move on all axes—it was
essentially a moving house with a collapsing
lift shaft. Lawrence converted some original
pencil drawings into VectorWorks. He imported into VectorWorks drawings created in Autodesk Inventor from the special effects team
for the twelfth-scale exterior house rig and
AutoCAD drawings from outside contractors
for the full-size interior version.
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 10:49:04 PM
NEWS
Lighting Goes Back in Time
ATLANTA, GA — Stage Front Presentation Systems (SFPS) supplied a Jands Vista
S3 lighting console and 72 Chroma-Q™
Plus color changers for the new Medieval Times Atlanta Dinner & Tournament.
Georgia-based Stage Front has been the
design and build contractor for Medieval
Times since providing the lighting and
special effects for the original Florida
Castle in 1986.
The 1,200-seat arena shows include
equestrian events, tournaments and
games, jousting, hand-to-hand combat
scenes, a Wizard sequence and a lighting
overture in between opening scenes.
LD Marty Huntoon commented: “Being able to program the lighting to a
timeline for this show was a real breath
of fresh air.”
Huntoon also found the programming
able to import audio. After noticing some
difficulties in other Castles’ running segments that required co-ordination with the
audio engineer, he knew he could easily
resolve these by simply playing back both
the pre-recorded audio track and lighting
steps from one button on the console.
Following Marty’s recommendation,
Medieval Times purchased a Vista S3 for
the Atlanta show rig, which is connected
to an Apple Intel iMac and provides control for 154 ETC Source Four PARs, 35 ETC
Source Four ERS fixtures, nine Coemar
iSPOT 575EBs, 16 Coemar Prowashes
250, Reel EFX DF-50 hazers and Le Maitre
G300 Fog.
Marty also specified 72 Chroma-Q
Plus color changers for the Atlanta Castle,
based upon the Chroma-Q units installed
and maintained over the years in previous
Castles by the company.
Since completing the installation,
Stage Front’s Vista S3 has been used for
various concert, corporate and house-of
worship-events in the Southeast.
The cast prepares for battle at Medieval Times.
McEntire
Honored
at Kodak
HOLLYWOOD, CA — Greg Brunton
of Design Partners, Inc. (DPI) designed
the live-to-tape concert tribute CMT
Giants: Reba, which premiered November 18, 2006 on Country Music
Television.
Eleven live performances of Reba
McEntire’s songs were taped in front
of a live audience at The Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on October 26. Reba’s songs were performed by female
artists including Martina McBride,
Kelly Clarkson, LeAnn Rimes, Jennifer Nettles, Wynonna, Faith Hill, Dolly
Parton, Trisha Yearwood and Megan
Mullally.
The more than 250 moving lights
included Vari*lite VL5, VL 2416, VL
3000 and 3500 and VL6C. Versa TUBES
back-lit the bands, and the orchestra
was side-lit by Coemar LED PixelPars.
The Morpheus XR2 wash was used to
side light the beaded curtain and various swags of fabric.
For the finale, which Reba performed, Stealth LED Panels from Element Labs were used to create a video wall that bled through to highlight
and reveal her entrance. A fan of Five
Syncrolite 10K searchlights appeared
behind her.
Live guest appearances and tributes included Beau Bridges, Barbara
Mandrell, Andie MacDowell, Dakota
Fanning, James Denton and from Reba’s successful television series, both
Melissa Peterman and Christopher
Rich.
Tom Forrest, was executive producer; Jillian Ellis was line producer, and Mike Swinford acted as
production designer. Brunton, of
DPI, was assisted by Kim Killingsworth, also of DPI, and Harry Sangmeister served as lighting director
and programmer.
www.PLSN.com
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
12/1/06 5:44:45 PM
NEWS
Atomic Tour
Incites Panic
LITITZ, PA – Panic! at the Disco launches its
American tour with a set by Atomic Design, Inc.
The band and their artistic director and lighting
designer, Robb Jibson of Robb Jibson Design,
created the concept for the tour set based on
the video’s gothic circus theme.
Jibson brought the concept to Atomic Design, Inc. where it was put in the hands of scenic designer Mike Rhoads. Jibson and Rhoads
fine-tuned the design and brought in long-time
friends and associates Tait Towers to handle
staging and custom risers. Central to the theme
is a large circus big top and tenting, a lion cage
keyboard riser and a merry-go-round drum riser
that opens to reveal an entrance for dancers.
Working from a concept that Jibson and
the band put forward, Rhoads created the Victorian-era audience digitally. This image was then
hand colored by Joanna Davis, a fellow Atomic
designer, and finally printed in large format to
create the look the band desired.
The tour kicked off in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, November 7, and has
stops throughout the US and Canada until
mid-December.
ESTA Announces Winners Of 2006
Dealers’ and Manufacturers’ Choice Awards
NEW YORK — ESTA (the Entertainment Services and Technology Association) has announced the winners of the
2006 Dealers’ and Manufacturers’ Choice
Awards.
The Dealers’ Choice Customer Service Awards offer ESTA’s Dealer Members the opportunity to publicly recognize those Manufacturers that provide
superior performance in four main areas: Customer Service, Shipping and Billing, Technical Support and Quotations/
Project Management. Dealers cast their
votes for Manufacturers in each of three
categories, based on the Manufacturers’
number of employees: 1-6, 7-25 and over
25. The winners for 2006 are:
Doug Fleenor, Design, Inc.
Pathway Connectivity Inc.
Apollo Design Technology, Inc.
The Manufacturers’ Choice Dealers of
the Year Awards offer ESTA’s Manufacturer Members the opportunity to publicly
Weller Strings Pearls
LONDON — An Avolites Pearl Expert is on
tour with Paul Weller - specified by LD Pip Rhodes.
When Weller told Rhodes he wanted the show to
be operated “live,” rather than pre-programmed
or replayed in a cue list style, this seemed an ideal
opportunity to road-test the new console, which
is designed for flexible “hands-on” operation.
The desk is controlling 16 Martin MAC 700
and 12 Martin MAC 250 moving lights, 12 4-Lite
DWE Moles, four ARRI HMIs with Wybron ColorRams and Eclipse dimmer shutters plus four Martin Atomic strobes with color-changers. There
are also four bars of six PARs for the downstage
wash, all supplied by Neg Earth, along with trussing and rigging. Most of the lights are hung on a
raked upstage box truss structure.
Rhodes says that he is effectively using the
An Avolites Pearl runs a Paul Weller concert.
moving lights as if they are generics, and is keeping things simple with just six color palettes and
four gobo palettes in the desk, used as the basic
show building blocks. Everything else is mixed
and layered on top completely live – and as a result, often slightly different each night.
recognize superior performance in four
main areas: Staff, Sales and Marketing,
Inventory and Financial Responsibility.
Manufacturers cast their votes for Dealers in each of three categories, based on
the Dealers’ number of employees: 1-6,
7-25 and over 25. The winners for 2006
are:
Indianapolis Stage Sales & Rentals,
Inc.
Production Advantage, Inc.
Stage Equipment & Lighting, Inc.
The Dealers’ Choice Product Awards
recognize outstanding entertainment
technology products in three categories:
Expendable, Widget and Equipment. The
winners for 2005 are:
Expendable Category — Faux Snow
from SnowMasters Evaporative Snow
Systems, Inc. Faux Snow gives the visual effect of snow cover on the ground.
It’s biodegradable, non-toxic and
environmentally friendly.
Widget Category — Lex Eectrol
Plug-in Splitter from Lex Products Corp.
The new Lex Electrol 512 DMX Plug-in
Isolator Splitter/Repeater (ISR 1.2) is a
plug-in unit that provides one-in, twoout isolation and buffering of DMX signals. The PISR rebuilds very weak signals,
while isolating ground loops, reducing
static electricity problems and providing high-drive for long cable runs.
Equipment Category — Power Assist from J.R. Clancy, Inc. Allows you to
motorize your counterweight sets with
a retrofittable winch.
The Customer Service and Dealer
of the Year awards were presented
at ESTA’s annual dinner held in conjunction with the LDI 2006 show on
Thursday, October 19, and the Product awards were presented during
the LDI 2006 awards ceremony on
Saturday, October 21.
Elation Hosts Students at LDI
LOS ANGELES — Elation
Professional welcomed a group
of four lighting design students
as their guests to the first Elation
Education Experience at the LDI
Show in Las Vegas. Students
Marie Yokoyama, Jason March,
Scott Evans and Leah Austin
were selected by a group of
educators and journalists, based
on their enthusiasm for, and potential in, lighting design. These
students, along with lighting
professor David Jacques, were
provided with an all-expense
paid trip to the LDI show by
The lucky students, from L-R: Jason March, Scott Evans, John Lopez
Elation Professional.
(sales manager for Elation Lighting), Leah Austin and Marie Yokoyama.
Upcoming
Events
Stage Lighting Super Saturday seminars/workshops: Jan 13, 2007, Pace
University, Michael Schimmel Center for
the Arts, New York, NY
(www. stagelightingseminars.com)
The NAMM Show: Jan 18-21, 2007,
Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA
(www.thenammshow.com)
Rigging Seminars: Las Vegas, February 12–
16; Boston, April 10–13; Chicago, July 9–12;
Seattle, October 8–11. ( www.riggingseminars.com)
TOMCAT Hoist and Rigging Workshop:
February 21–24, 2007. TOMCAT Advanced
Hoist & Truss workshop: February 23 and
24, 2007. (www.tomcatglobal.com)
Mountain Productions 22nd Annual
CM Hoist School: March 26–29, 2007,
Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (www.mountainproductions.com/hoistschool.html)
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NEWS
Letters to the Editor
Hats off to you guys. I have worked
as a stagehand, runner, production
secretary, monitor engineer, assistant
audio tech, camera operator, spot
op, as well as lighting tech and LD. I
was honored to spend many years
working for Kirby Wyatt at ShowCo
creative services. He taught me more
than many of the college instructors I’ve had since (three lighting
and three set design courses among
others). I learned from him by building his designs, and then going out
on show sites, putting it all up and
watching it run! I also learned from
the plethora of designers that came
through several house gigs and the
many countless stagehand gigs I
have worked over the last 25 years. I
still try to learn something new every
day that I work. I worked for almost
20 years in the business before I took
classes. God love these kids that I deal
with on a daily basis, but there are too
many in lead positions that do not
need to be there, but they are related
or connected or have that degree and
think they know it all! Not all of them,
mind you, but way too many for comfort. Needless to say, I just wanted to
say thank you for printing what I want
to say on at least a weekly basis. Once
again you’ve hit that great big nail on
the head!
Cindy Chandler
My name is Keith Nestor. I wrote to you
some time ago about the condition of the
New Orleans music industry. I used to be
the operation manager for the Orpheum
theatre in New Orleans for 10 years. When
Katrina flooded the city and closed all the
Theatres, I went to work for the Corp of Engineers to pay the bills for 14 months. At the
time the industry looked really bad. Well
things are looking really good for us these
days. I went to work for Pace Systems doing
audio, working in the art department and
what ever else they have for me.The city has
just had a couple of large conventions. The
movies are shooting all over town, and there
is music in the air again. The city is still really
messed up, and a lot of rebuilding has to
be done. But it’s getting done. All the large
theatres are still closed, and no repair work
has started on them. But, in spite of our
stupid government leaders, it’s starting to
come alive.The last time I wrote to you I was
really down on the whole scene!
So I just wanted you to know things are
looking good. The first gig I did lasted 20
hours, and when I came home the wife said
I had a smile from ear too ear. A number of
my friends in the industry have come back
to town, and I hear that more are on their
way. So I believe there is a God in heaven
who does not want the music to die in this
old city.
Thanks and God Bless.
Keith Nestor
New Orleans
Dear Fellow Theatre Technicians,
I recently received a grant from The ESTA
Foundation’s Behind the Scenes program,
and I want you to know how important and
helpful that act of generosity was.
I am Michael Maag, the master electrician at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Founded in 1935, the Tony Award-winning
Oregon Shakespeare Festival is among the
oldest and largest professional non-profit
theatres in the nation. Each year OSF presents an eight-and-a-half-month season of
11 plays in three theatres in rotating rep,
OSF presents more than 780 performances
annually. So you know that means I have a
few things to do. Unfortunately, while taking
a break from the OSF Lighting Department,
I was struck by a car while riding my bicycle.
The resulting spinal cord Injury paralyzed my
legs, and permanently damaged my right
shoulder. I also faced a deteriorating condition and spreading paralysis that would require more surgery to halt.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival was
amazingly accommodating to my new situation; they allowed me to return to work as
the master electrician. The Festival even held
a benefit performance to help with my enormous medical expenses. However, beyond
the financial difficulties, I had many practical
problems to overcome. To get to work I had
to have someone drive me, unload my wheel
chair and help me into it. I also had a very difficult time moving between our three theatres and getting where I needed to be to
do my job. My wife and I were overwhelmed
with the many financial and practical problems my new situation presented to us.
That is when I wrote to The ESTA
Foundation after a friend (Dinna Myers at
Musson) suggested that I do so. The ESTA
Foundation-Behind the Scenes program is
a brand new granting agency, and I think
they might have been a little overwhelmed
by the list of expenses that I need help
with. However, they sent me a check for the
expense that would be most helpful to me,
the motorized wheelchair. With the chair I
have a lot of independent mobility options
that I did not have before. This chair is so
amazing; it has a 10–12 mile range, and
climbs the steep hills of Ashland like it is a
mountain goat. Most importantly, I can get
in and out of the theatres on my own now.
I cannot find enough ways to express
my gratitude for this grant. The ESTA Foundation’s Behind the Scenes program has
given me independence and the ability
to continue in the work I love. The support
and love of the people at OSF, and through
Behind the Scenes, the people in our industry, gives me the courage to fight this
battle every day.
I urge you to make even a small donation to Behind the Scenes if you have the
means. There are many theatre technicians
in need, whose lives can be changed for
the better as mine has been: http://www.
estafoundation.org/bts.htm
Thank you to The ESTA Foundation Behind the Scenes for your generosity. The
gift you have given will have a long lasting
positive effect on my life.
Sincerely,
Michael K Maag
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
10
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www.PLSN.com
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NEWS
Show Moves Outdoors In Branson
BRANSON, MO — Illuminating Concepts (IC),
architectural and themed lighting designers and
consultants based in Farmington Hills, Mich., was
called upon to create all exterior architectural
lighting, theatrical and show lighting design, light
tower design, audio integration, control systems,
implementation, project management, procurement and logistics throughout Branson Landing, a waterfront development that occupies 95
acres, including 1.5 miles of waterfront on Lake
Taneycomo.
The shopping and entertainment promenade is divided into six districts, each with differing architecture and activities. IC chose Martin
Architectural IP65-rated Exterior 200, Exterior 200
long barrel and in-ground 200 luminaires to visually enhance the pedestrian level of the mile-long
promenade and fountain water shows.
ground 200 color changers used to uplight stone
and brick columns.“The flowerpot idea grew out
of a construction issue with the building footings
in which we couldn’t place the lighting as close
to the building as we needed to for coverage
purposes, so this was the solution,” says Kenneth.
A two-and-a-half-acre town square, with
a 1,500-seat amphitheatre and an illuminated
water fountain featuring jet streams and fireballs, is located at the area’s culminating point
and serves as the project’s entertainment headquarters. Further down the promenade is another fountain with a white light water show.
Also at the town square area are four IC-designed light towers meant to anchor the open
space. The towers also provide sound reinforcement positioning for stage shows. Material at
the top of each tower, acrylic tubing woven
through the steel tower structure, is lit by LED
lighting from Color Kinetics, while the rest of the
tower is lit by Martin short and long barrel Exterior 200s mounted on the tower’s center core.
Lighting control for the Branson Landing
promenade is from IC’s MediamorFX audiovisual and lighting system. Martin’s Maxxyz PC
controller with Maxxyz Manager has been integrated into the MediamorFX system.The system
utilizes four satellite control rooms and a main
control room distributed around the project.
Crew included owner/developer HCW
Development, City of Branson, Urban Retail
Properties; IC designers included Kenneth Klemmer (DD), Michael Shulman (SD), Ron Harwood (principal) and Sonia Noble (designer);
audio and controls were by Jeremy McDaniel,
Larry Schirmer, Adam Winter, Jim Anderson and
A street in the new Branson Landing development.
Brandon Youells, with onsite PM Kurt Henry and
programmer Eric Wade.
One of the color-changing street lamps.
100.0612.NEWS.indd 11
Along the promenade’s length are 112 Holophane streetlamps, whose design differs in
each district. The streetlamps are a combination
of Holophane luminaires outfitted with a Martin
Exterior 200 CMY color-changing module. The
idea was to turn a roadway lighting fixture into a
color-changing fixture in order to provide a customized, defining look to each district. In a design
effort split between Holophane and Martin Architectural, modifications were made to both the
streetlamps and the CMY modules to produce a
color-changing streetlamp. Because of fixed design elements however, when mounted into the
Holophane fixture, light exited the CMY module
directly down, simply creating a “hot spot” on the
luminaire’s glass instead of replicating the shape
of a normally used ED17 Metal Halide lamp. Illuminating Concepts worked with Holophane on
an optical control solution, utilizing a prismed
“pseudo-lamp,” distributing the colored light
properly within the glass Holophane refractor.
The Holophane color-changing lamps operate in white mode to light the pedestrian walkway the majority of the time, and then initiate the
changing of color for events and themed shows.
The MediaMorphFX control system, developed
by IC, is meant to allow street performers to locally change colored illumination. Additionally,
IC developed audio speakers concealed in each
streetlamp base, along with the control gear for
the CMY module housed in a custom enclosure.
Retail facades and trees along the promenade are uplit using Exterior 200 and in-ground
200 color changers. “We wanted to illuminate
the facades and trees that were most visually
important,” states Kenneth Klemmer, IC’s design
director on the project. Located in flowerpots,
and spaced approximately every 40 feet, are in-
11/30/06 10:51:22 PM
NEWS
In Brief
Widespread Options to
Widespread Panic
Look Solutions’ Power-Tiny battery-operated fog generator and the palm-sized TinyFogger lent their special-effects capabilities to two recent films, Spider-Man 3 and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, starring Adam Sandler… Bandit Lites will be providing lighting for the six-date Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business Showcase Series.
Bandit has also purchased some Coemar Infinity lights from the team at ICD-Gary Mass,
Noel Duncan and Nick Freed… ETC has introduced a new interactive graphic tour on their
Web site, highlighting the features and functionality of their new Eos control system, at
www.etcconnect.com/minisite/Eos…Audio Visual Innovations has announced that InfoComm International awarded the AVI Tech Academy© program with CTS renewal
units… LD Systems has purchased many new automated fixtures, LED fixtures and control boards. The new equipment includes a number of the High End Systems DL.2s and
Studio Command 1200s, MA Lighting’s grandMA control consoles and Coemar LED
fixtures… Northern Sound & Light (NSL) was recently chosen to sell Coemar intelligent lighting products by Inner Circle Distributors. The arrangement became effective
November 1, 2006.
Shares Ready for Market
LOS ANGELES – When drawing up plans
for Widespread Panic’s 28-date U.S. tour this
fall, lighting designer Candace Brightman,
who served as LD for the Grateful Dead for
20 years, worked with Andrew Gumper of AG
Light & Sound, who assisted in the programming and visual design of the show.
The duo chose a gear package built
around eight Power Spot 575IEs and 32 Power
Wash 575Es from Elation Professional. Three
truss arches were constructed over the stage,
with the eight Power Spots being positioned
on the center arch. The Power Washes were
placed eight each on four separate strips of
trussing encircling the stage, two extending diagonally at the front and two running
along the sides of the stage perpendicular to
the arches.
“Candace was looking for something dif-
Widespread Panic
ferent,” said James Watral of AG Light & Sound.
Among the Power Spot 575IE’s effects: an iris,
11 colors plus white and UV, 16 replaceable
gobos on two wheels with gobo overlaying,
a built-in 4.9mW red laser, and a 3-facet rotating prism. The Power Wash 575E wash effects
are used to splash color around the stage and
out into the audience with CMY color mixing.
The tour’s first stop was Radio City
Music Hall in New York.
expenses related to the expansion of the
company’s product line, including new
“white light” products and capital expenditures. At the completion of the offering,
assuming no over-allotment, Color Kinetics
will have approximately 21,189,405 shares
issued and outstanding. Color Kinetics will
not receive any proceeds from the sale of
shares by the selling stockholders.
The sole book-running manager of
the offering is Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
The co-lead manager is CIBC World Markets
Corp., and the co-managers are ThinkEquity
Partners LLC and Canaccord Adams Inc. Copies of the final prospectus relating to the of-
fering may be obtained from Deutsche Bank
Securities Inc., 60 Wall Street, 4th Floor, New
York, NY 10005, from the offices of any of the
underwriters identified above or from the
SEC’s Web site at http://www.sec.gov.
The offering is being made pursuant to an effective registration statement.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy,
nor shall there be any sale of these securities
in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to
registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction continued
from cover.
Companies Sign LED Agreement
LOS ANGELES — Gener8Xion Entertainment, Inc. has announced that it has
signed an exclusive sales agreement with
Burbank-based, LEDZ, Inc. The agreement
will add the “LED Mini Par” daylight and
tungsten lighting system to the current
product line of lighting equipment offered
through Gener8Xion’s lighting division,
Cinemills (http://www.cinemills.com).
The solid-state semiconductors are
typically used in automobile dashboards
and electronic devices, such as mobile
phones. LEDZ, Inc. has developed proprietary LED lighting products with motion
picture, broadcast and sanctuary applications.
LEDZ, Inc., founded by Karl Schultz,
holds the patent-pending rights to the
“LED Mini Par” (LMP). The LMP is intended
to allow for interchangeable lenses, choice
of beam angles, 60,000-hour life span and
low power consumption.
Double-Deckers
Move Beyond Busses
DENVER, CO — The Wright Group Event
Services, in partnership with MSR (Mobile
Stage Rentals) by Stageline, has introduces
the ProMobile Double Decker Super Stage.
The ProMobile Stage is a mobile marketing
tool featuring two accessible levels and 2000
square feet of vertical space.
The ProMobile Stage is a multi-purpose
unit with varied applications. The stage features a hospitality deck and viewing platform
twenty-four feet above ground level, a corporate event stage, promotional touring unit,
skybox for sporting events, VIP area for sports
and concerts, mobile broadcast booth, multilevel exhibit booth and more. The ProMobile
Madama Butterfly
Finds Larger Audience
NEW YORK — A giant screen, with projection equipment provided by Scharff Weisberg, was set up in the Lincoln Center plaza
for a simulcast of the Puccini opera, Madama
Butterfly, staged by director Anthony Minghella. The Panasonic, NASDAQ and Reuters
screens at Times Square also beamed the
production to a blocked-off section of Times
Square. The outdoor crowd at Lincoln Center
was estimated at 3,000 people.
The opening-night performance, the
first new production to inaugurate a Met
season in two decades, marks the beginning for Peter Gelb as the general manager
of the Met.
Planning for the evening began with
Scharff Weisberg consulting with the Met’s
technical department on the screen type
and construction. They opted for Gerriets
International Gray Screen on a 36x20-foot
frame, built by the Met’s scenic department.
Scharff Weisberg specified, installed and
aligned two Christie Roadie 25K projectors,
12
has a strong enough roof to rig most types of
equipment and has banner hanging capabilities. It allows for product and talent showcasing as well as brand visibility and promotion.
The upper deck allows for a VIP area or
can serve as an area for special displays and
presentations.
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.0612.NEWS.indd 12
which were chosen for their light output
and resolution.
With the sun scheduled to set at 6:40
pm that evening, and the curtain at 6:30pm,
there was plenty of apprehension that light
output from the two projectors would not
be sufficient to offset the remaining daylight. In actuality, the image “was certainly
acceptable during the first act, and, as it
became darker, the image was truly cinematic,” recalls Scharff Weisberg president
Josh Weisberg.
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11/30/06 10:44:15 PM
ONTHEMOVE
A l t m a n
Lighting,
Inc.
announced that
Victor Wittmann
has joined the
company as VP
of sales and marketing. Wittmann
will oversee both
Victor Wittmann
national and international sales, as well as helping to develop
Altman Lighting in new markets.
AV Concepts has hired Robert Rios as exhibitor sales representative. Rios will manage
solicitation and on-site exhibitor operations.
In addition, Tim Olson will be taking over their
lighting department.
CITC
announced
the
appointment
of Kelly Satterlee to lead their
sales team.
Da-Lite
Screen
Company appointed
Mark Erickson to
the position of
marketing manager. Mark will
oversee Da-Lite’s
international
and
domestic
Digital
Projection
International
(DPI), has hired
Paul Gomes
and Steve
Sherk as DP
sales managers
on the U.S. West
Coast. Gomes
and Sherk bring
over thirty
combined years
of A/V sales
experience to
the DPI organization.
Paul Gomes
Steve Sherk
Kelly Saterlee
Bill
Koehler
has accepted the
position of western
dealer sales manager at Creative
Stage Lighting. He
joins CSL from TCS
Audio of San Diego, CA, where he
served as general
sales manager.
marketing activities for both the commercial
and home theatre markets.
Leviton
Manufacturing promoted Joel Manjarris to the position of
southeast regional
manager for the
company’s Lighting Management
Systems division.
fael Rivera as accounts manager
at its Orange
County
Convention Center
(OCCC) location.
Rivera’s responsibilities will include the overRafael Rivera
all management
of LMG’s onsite office at the OCCC.
LSC Lighting Systems recently appointed
Jaz Harrison to
the role of marketing officer. Jaz
will provide LSC
distributor communications and
information on
new products.
Ocean Optics appointed Richard
Pollard to the position of vice president
of operations. Pollard is tasked with
managing the company’s engineering
and manufacturing processes, developing new systems, and guiding the strategic growth of the company.
Pelican Products hired Todd Walden
as southeast regional sales manager. He
will be responsible for the business development and management of all Pelican sales activities in Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina
and Tennessee.
Jaz Harrison
TBA Global Events has announced
that Ron Kelly was named general manager of the Miami office and Elaine
Keller was appointed to the new role of
senior account executive.
Northern
Sound & Light
(NSL)
added
Amy Parks to
their
professional
staff.
Parks will provide front-line
support for inJoel Manjarris
coming calls and visitors to NSL’s business administration office, as well as
audit customer orders for accuracy, audit vendor invoices and provide general
administrative assistance as needed.
To g e t l i s t e d i n
On The Move send your
info to [email protected]
Amy Parks
Lex Products
Corp. has hired Cynthia Carraway as part of
their technical sales staff.
Bill Koehler
Mark Erickson
LMG,
Inc.
promoted Joseph Freeman
to Orlando accounts
manager. In his new
role, Joseph will
manage
and
direct the sales
Joseph Freeman
and coordination teams for
the show services department in the firm’s
Orlando headquarters. They also hired Ra-
INTERNATIONALNEWS
L o n d o n ’s S o u t h B a n k
Center Lights It Up
LONDON — Lighting designer Willie Williams was asked by the South Bank Center’s
creative director Jude Kelly to create a lighting design for the Center, both to give it its
own identity and to ensure that it wasn’t
overshadowed by the lighting design now in
place at its neighbor, the National Theatre.
Williams devised a fixed look for the
buildings, and White Light supplied MBI
floods and ETC Source Four fixtures to implement the design. The scale of the site
— a collection of buildings spread over 20
acres along the River Thames — proved a
challenge, as did the absence of up-to-date
drawings of the Center, leading Williams to
produce what he feels may be “the first lighting plot in history to be drawn using Google
Earth.” In the final scheme, the floods were
concealed in the Center’s many corners and
crevices, with the Source Fours shuttered
into slots to catch edges and corners in
tungsten color.
The lighting team included crew chief Alex
Murphy and Henry Barbour, Harry Haywood
and Dai Mitchel. This design was originally
scheduled to run until the end of August, but
it has been extended into the autumn, with
the designer and White Light investigating
weatherproofing options to keep the equipment running through the winter.
The South Bank Center with its new lighting.
14
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INTERNATIONALNEWS
National Theatre Rigs Up Kinesys System
LONDON — Rigging Specialists Nippy
Industries has supplied London’s National
Theatre with a 14-way Kinesys automation
system featuring Liftket vari-speed motors.
The system will be primarily based in the
Lyttelton Theatre, but will also be available
for use in the National’s other venues.
Nippy has been a rigging supplier at the
National since 2001 and works closely with
the National’s rigging department, including Rigging Resources technician Matthew
Wheeler and his colleague Rob Barnard,
head of Stage Facilities. Wheeler and Barnard
first saw the Kinesys system on the Nippy Industries stand at the 2005 ABTT show.
“The demands of the theatre are really
quite considerable” says Wheeler, and with
sets and productions getting more ambi-
tious and changeover times more compressed, they were interested in a compact,
cost-effective system to help them move
large set pieces quickly, easily and safely.
They also wanted a ‘”plug and play” system
— something that came out of the box,
plugged in and worked without any fuss or
compatibility issues.
They initially tested the Kinesys system
with a rental from Nippy Industries. Then,
when the decision came to make the purchase, they also needed to act extremely
quickly, as an incoming production needed
to utilize the system immediately.
The deal was completed for Nippy by
Hannah Sneath. The full system consists
of the 14 Kinesys Elevation 1+ controllers,
the 14 20-meters-a-minute Liftkets, a Kine-
sys Array PD-ES power distro
and a laptop running Kinesys’
proprietary Vector software.
The Elevation 1+ mounts
close to the motor, and has a
32A 3-phase inlet and outlet
allowing units to be “daisychained” together. Data is
provided via an RS485 data
link, and an LED display on
the front and full menu system are integrated, together
with movement and speed
controls. Nippy industries co- Matthew Wheeler sets the Elevation 1+ controllers
in the grid of the Lyttelton Theatre.
ordinated training sessions
on the new kit between Kineon two Lyttleton productions: Voysey Insys and the National’s staff.
heritance and a production of the Chekhov
The new system went straight into use classic, The Seagull.
Caernarfon Castle Adjusts Image
ESSEX, UK — Large format projections specialists E\T\C UK created a 150-meter-wide highimpact image across 350 meters of water onto
Caernarfon Castle for a massive “son et lumière”
event, Merlin’s Magic Quest, a show celebrating
Welsh history, heritage and community.
The event follows a pilot project staged in
2004, in which E\T\C UK projected onto a portion
of the castle walls from the bottom of the hill on
the town side of the Seiont River. This time, the
projections, fed by five PIGI 6Kw projectors with
double rotating scrollers, filled the entire side of
the castle, including three towers and two “curtain” walls facing the water, and were beamed
from across the far side of the river.
The 35-minute show involved over 200 of
images and filled the 40-meter PIGI scrolls. It was
set to a specially composed soundtrack by Mal-
colm Rowe, and also featured live acting by a reenactment society.
Merlin’s Magic Quest was organized and produced by John Thirsk of Y Grael Cyf (The Grail), a
not-for-profit organization aiming to use lighting
and visuals to boost Caernarfon as a visitor attraction, the idea being to stage regular shows.
Thirsk storyboarded the show, which was
then pictorialized by E\T\C UK’s Ross Ashton,
working with Paul Chatfield who turned
them into PIGI artwork. The giant images
made a filmic backdrop for everyone watching the show. With no narrative track, each
Imposing projections of Merlin’s Magic Quest
projected onto Caernarfon Castle.
image had to speak for itself, as the show recalled a millennium of Welsh history.
Ashton comments, “The castle is a fantastic
building on which to work, augmented by fabulous surrounding scenery — all adding to some
real ‘magic’ in the end result”.
The E\T\C UK team of Ashton, Phil Pieridis
and Karen Monid arrived onsite five days before
the first show. Monid did all the onsite programming using an OnlyCue PC-based system. With
only one PIGI machine per surface section of the
castle, the fade-ins and -outs had to be staggered
to effectively emulate two complete cross fading
images. Four solid nights of programming were required, working closely
with the soundtrack.
The projectors were housed in
specially built weatherized scaffolding
hides, located in a garden across the
Sieont, donated for the duration by a
resident. Generator power was supplied
by Golden Triangle.
Two shows were run for two nights,
with audiences choosing to view either
from just below the castle on the town
side or across the water.
Bridging the Gap
OXFORD, UK — The Bridge, a dance
club in Oxford, recently updated with Element Labs VersaTILES, supplied by Projected Image Digital. The dance floor now
features three sections of VersaTILES: a 6 x
1-meter strip of VersaTILES along the end
wall of the dance floor, flanked by two 2 by
1/2-meter strips on the side walls. James
Ussher designed and installed this new
scheme, which saw the removal of most of
the waggling disco lights and effects.
Ussher first saw VersaTILES on the
PID stand at PLASA 04, when they were
launched. However, it was
not a cheap option for the
proposed lighting upgrade,
and so that element of the
overall project went on the
back burner for a while.
By May of 2006, the
club was ready to make
the investment. PID’s David March undertook several demos, started talking
with Ussher on a quantity
of eight square meters of
VersaTILE.
16
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.0612.14-17.OTM_INT.indd 16
The TILES are programmed with a series
of effects and run off 8A of power. The ceiling has been painted in high gloss to maximize the TILE effects, which are beamed up
into the ceiling and bounced back onto the
dance floor. They are also in the process of
installing additional glass surfaces around
the room for enhanced “bounce.”
PID supplied an Element Labs C1 controller to run the installation. All the content
has been created by Ussher using a combination of Apple Motion files and those supplied by a contracted programmer.
A VersaTILE wall at The Bridge.
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 11:54:26 PM
INTERNATIONALNEWS
Enter the Beam of the Ball
LONDON — Production Plus has purchased 16 Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash
575 AT fixtures — eight of each type. One
of the first outings for the new 575 AT
fixtures was a gala ball at the Hilton International Hotel, Park Lane, London, for
the Hilton Community Foundation Ball
charity. The gala was staged in the Grand
Ballroom and featured a lighting design
by Dave Gibbon. Gibbon is a regular on
the Production Plus live event team.
The stage was built in the center, and
the 16 Robe 575 Spots and Washes were
flown on the front and back trusses over
the stage — Washes on the front and
Spots on the back. Gibbon also specified
a further sixteen Robe Spot 250s and
Wash 250s. These were joined by Source
Fours with break-up gobos for illuminating the audience and pinspots, with
LED PARs used to illuminate the upstage
drapes and the drum kit.
The front truss ColorWash and Spot
575s produced general and effects lighting of the band while onstage. The 250s
were used dotted around the room during dinner and for dance floor lighting
and effects after dinner.
Gibbon ran the show lighting from an
Avolites Pearl 2004 console.
Robe lights the performers at the Hilton Community Foundation Ball.
Liverpool Gets Fired
Up for November 5
LIVERPOOL, UK — Liverpool Culture
Company’s Special Events team staged three
fireworks displays city-wide on November 5.
Traditionally Liverpool’s November 5 celebrations have been a hectic night. They have
been staged in triplicate for some years, and
usually two displays are park-based with the
third on a prominent river site, but this year,
due to redevelopment, there was nowhere
to accommodate the audience for a river display. Instead, LCC took on a new park venue at
Temple Newsham in the Tuebrook area.
To add depth to the overall visual image,
the trees and foliage in the parks were illuminated this year for the first time — using Studio Due City Color lighting fixtures. These and
the sound systems for all three parks were
supplied by Manchester based Audile.
The fireworks themselves contained
multi-color effects and aerial arrays. They
were all fired from Pyromate controllers, with
Sefton Park featuring a Pyromate Nighthawk
digital system and the others standard analogue systems.
All three displays were designed and coordinated by Steve Boothman of Fantastic
Fireworks, working closely with the Culture
Company team, including event manager Bill
Howard. Boothman ran the Sefton show, Andy
Howarth ran Walton Park and Charlie Purton
ran Temple Newsham. Generator power for all
three sites was supplied by Pyramid, barriers
by Event solutions, cabins from Search, stewards from Paramount, and SES looked after
the security.
Fireworks detonate for Nov. 5.
100.0612.14-17.OTM_INT.indd 17
11/30/06 8:51:06 PM
NEWPRODUCTS
»ETC
Congo jr
Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc.’s Congo jr is the
compact version of its larger Congo console, with identical channel and output counts, as well the same operating software. Congo jr is meant to handle lighting rigs
with conventional lights, moving lights, LEDs, media
servers and other DMX-controlled multiparameter devices. Congo jr also features an optional Master Playback
Wing and is intended for space-compromised venues.
Coinciding with the release of Congo jr is ETC’s introduction of Congo software version 4.2.1, which serves as
a patch, primarily supporting the new Congo jr hardware.
ETC, Inc. • 800.688.4116 • www.etcconnect.com
»Acclaim
Color Ray Indoor/Outdoor LED
Color-Changing Luminaire
Acclaim Lighting’s Color Ray LED luminaire features three high-power one-watt LEDs — red, green and blue —and an IP 65 rating, meaning
it can withstand dust and rain for outdoor use. The fixture can be operated with a DMX-512 compatible controller, or it can be used as a standalone unit. It features a 10° standard beam angle for maximum output.
The Color Ray draws 5-watts maximum power consumption at full RGB
intensity, giving equivalent output to a 50W halogen lamp.The Color Ray
measures 5.3”L x 3.9”W x 6.3”H and weighs just 2.6 lbs. MSRP: $229.00.
Acclaim Lighting • 866.245.6726 • www.acclaimlighting.com
»Atomic
Design Honeycombs
Atomic Design Inc.’s Honeycombs are individual dimensional and collapsible units that can be hung in columns or interconnected to form walls of any
shape or size. Because of their design they can create a multitude of looks and
are meant to be used at a broad range of events from corporate to rock-and-roll.
Atomic Design • 717.626.8301• www.atomicdesign.tv
»Chauvet
COLORado™ 3 indoor/outdoor
wash bank
The COLORado 3 is a multi-faceted intelligent wash
bank fitted with a total of 54 luminous one-watt LEDs
and featuring full RGB mixing with or without DMX control. It has an IP rating of 65, suitable for both indoor and
outdoor use. Units are stackable, and several COLORado
3 units can be attached to create a seamless strip, a bank
for use as a blinder light or even as an entire wall. Each
unit consists of three pods of 18 one-watt LEDS arranged
in circles. Life expectancy of the diodes is 100,000 hours.
An optional COLORado controller allows timed control of the fixture’s onset and turnoff and
accesses built in programs as well. Light intensity is 286 foot candles at one meter. COLORado 3 feeds from a power source of either 110V or 230V interchangeably. Beam angle is 30°.
Chauvet Lighting • 800.762.1084 • www.chauvetlighting.com
»Wireworks
1/3 SQUARE AD
LumaVue Custom Panels and Plates
Wireworks LumaVue Custom Panels and Plates are a custom panel
product that can be rear illuminated and are designed for use in connection panels, switch panels and diagrams of any kind where there is limited visibility, while providing electrical isolation between connectors.
It is available in either 1/8” or 1/4” thickness to fit individual requirements.
Panels are rear engraved so its markings cannot be marred or destroyed.
Wireworks • 800.642.9473 • www.wireworks.com
»Elation’s
Power Spot 700 Blasts
Elation Professional’s Power Spot 700 is a moving yoke fixture
with a maximum pan of 540° and maximum tilt of 280°. It comes with
a Philips MSR 700/2 700-watt 7500°K 1000-hour lamp. The 21-DMXchannel fixture in 16-bit mode features two color wheels with total
16 interchangeable dichroic filters offering split colors, color scrolling
and color correction filters. There are also three gobo wheels with a
total of 23 gobos, including one wheel with seven interchangeable
rotating gobos, and one wheel with 9 interchangeable static gobos.
MSRP of the Power Spot 700 with standard color wheels is $7,999.99.
Elation Professional • 866.245.6726 • www.elationlighting.com
18
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.0612.18-19.indd 18
www.PLSN.com
12/1/06 6:11:34 PM
»GoboMan
Color Filters
GoboMan Color Filters consist of 116 colors in 20” x 24”sheets,
manufactured on a high-grade polymeric base material. GoboMan’s color filters are surface coated for clarity and consistency
from batch to batch and all filters are highly heat-resistant. They
are numbered according to the European numbering system currently in use. GoboMan also offers a range of specifically designed
UV fade resistant filters for coloring high output fluorescent tubes.
GoboMan • 866.391.4626 • www.goboman.com
»Medialon
Manager 4 Software
Manager 4 software controls and synchronizes digital audio and video, lighting dimmers and desks, matrix
switchers, image processors, videowalls, lasers, fireworks,
special effects and more over one network. It offers frameaccurate synchronization, even on digital video; DMX; MIDI;
serial acquisition and editing; multitasking; and permanent
device position tracking. It features graphical programming and a customizable user interface. A new programming GUI has been designed to ease and reduce programming time with drag-and-drop and programming
wizard. The workspace can be adapted to users’ needs by displaying all show elements at a glance.
Medialon • 305.381.7794 • www.medialon.com
»Morpheus
Lights XR2+
Morpheus Lights XR2+™ is a higher performance version of the
company’s PanaBeam™XR2 automated wash luminaire. The XR2+ features the new MSR Gold 1200 FastFit lamp from Philips. The precision
reflector system in the XR2+ and smaller arc gap of the FastFit lamp
combine to increase optical efficiency and dramatically improve fixture
output — 80% increase at peak and 60% on average across the field.
Morpheus Lights • 888.667.7438 • www.morpheuslights.com
»Martin
Architectural Exterior 1200 Wash
The Exterior 1200 Wash has a 1200W lamp and a full range color
mixing system, and is designed for tall structures, high-rises or any
high-visibility architecture. It has a CMY color-mixing system, and
further color options are also provided on a four-color wheel. The
Exterior 1200’s lamp can reach nine stories and above, with an optiwhite front glass and ellipsoidal beam shapers. Intensity control is
0-100%, allowing an intelligent response to natural light. Narrow
and Medium models offer a variable zoom and 7° to 19° or 12° to
29° beam angles. The Exterior 1200 is weatherproof rated at IP 65.
Martin • 954.858.1800 • www.martin.com
»Road
Ready IntelliStage Portable Stage System
IntelliStage Portable Stage Systems consist of modular,
lightweight platforms and risers that can be combined to create customized stages in various heights and configurations.
Designed to be assembled by a single person, each platform
and riser are fastened together using an internal locking system, and each platform can bear weight up to 185 lbs./sq. ft.
(900 KGs/sq. meter). IntelliStage systems are available in kits
with an optional compact storage flight case featuring integrated. Platforms and risers are available on an individual basis.
1/3 SQUARE AD
Road Ready Cases • 562.906.6185 • www.roadreadycases.com
»Syncrolite
Series 3
Syncrolite’s series 3 fixtures, SXB-52D / SXB-82D / SX10KD, feature a 5000W, 8000W and 10,000W Xenon bulb respectively, a 14”
and 20” custom dichroic reflector, and use 11 channels of DMX. The
electronics are opto-isolated, with servo motor operation, and it
has a 540° maximum pan and 250° maximum tilt, both at variable
speeds. They all come standard with OmniColor* D — Syncrolite’s
proprietary scrolling Dichroic Color mixing sytem— for RGB additive and CYM subtractive dichroic colors, plus any standard gels.
Syncrolite, L.P. • 214.350.7696 • www.syncrolite.com
www.PLSN.com
100.0612.18-19.indd 19
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
19
11/30/06 8:55:00 PM
SHOWTIME
Tribute to the Latin Grammy
Automated Lighting Operator: Chris Nathan
Lighting Technicians: Philip Zammit, Ben Fisher,
Luis Portela, Ale Carnizares
Set Design: Will Rothfuss
Set Construction: Jupiter Scenic
Rigger: Walter Dominicis
Staging Company: Roc-Off
Staging Carpenter: Jesus (Chuy) Fragoso
Video Director: Jason Rudolph
Video Company: Roca Video
Venue
Gear
Univision Network, Miami,FL
18 12 30 30 20 6
4
Crew
PromoterProducer: Cisco Suarez
Lighting Company: Zenith Lighting
Production Manager: Tony Parodi
Lighting Designer: Carlos Colina
Lighting Director: Ramon Furelos
Martin MAC Profiles
Vari*Lite VL3000s
Coemar iWash Halos
High End Systems Studio Beam
w/ Fresnel lenses
Coemar LED Parlite fixtures
4’ MR16 mini strips
Robert Juliat followspots
2
2
2
4
2
1
1
2
2
6
2
2
6
21 2
60 1
3
3
4
Lycian 1290 followspots
MA Lighting grandMA consoles (plus 2 backups)
ETC Insight 3 consoles
19-inch flat screen monitors for main consoles
15-inch flat screen monitors for spare consoles
5-port Hub
Network Signal Processor (1 active/1 backup)
8-port Ethernet switches
4-Port DMX switches
UPS power supplies
Reel EFX DF-50s
Real EFX Turbo Fans
box fans
1-ton motors
spot chairs
Element Labs VersaTubes
45-foot x 14-foot Stewart screen
DPI 28SX DLP projectors
12-foot x 4-foot columns of D7s
42-foot plasma displays
Sweeney for Congress
Venue
Hall of Springs, Saratoga Springs, NY
Crew
Promoter/Producer/Lighting/
Staging: Adirondack Studios
Production Manager/Lighting
Designer/Set Designer: Ken Mark
Lighting Technician: Chip Viele
Set Construction: Joel Hudson
Staging Carpenter: Dylan Murphy,
Staging Products: ADKStudios Parallels
Gear
2
25 24 5
6
12 4
1
ETC Source Four PAR 64 575W NSPs
ETC Source Four ParNels
ETC Source Four Jr. Zooms
TMB DecoPars
Genie SL-24 towers
Thomas and Xtreme Truss
Leprecon LP-612 consoles
Chroma-Q Color Block DB-4s
Kawasaki New Product Showcase
Lighting Company: Brite Ideas
Production Manager: Greg Christy/Janelle Fredericksen
Lighting Designer: Eric Hanson
Automated Lighting Operator: Ariel Mouzo
Lighting Technicians: Jay Martin-ME, Servando Huerta,
Terry Smith, Ray Chacon, Dominic Sewell, Mike Fuller Sr.,
Mike Fuller Jr., Tom Folden, Frank Armenta, William Bennet,
Nich Phillips, Dana Casey, Jerrod Hettler, Mike Camarena
Set Design/Construction: Exhibit Works /Champion
Expo Rigger: Champion Expo
Venue
Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA
Crew
Promoter/Producer: Kathy Matyniak, Kawasaki
Consumer Events
8
50 6
12 8
36 1
1
8
6
Vari*Lite VL 3000 Profiles
575-watt Sky PARs
ETC Source Four Lekos w/400-watt HMI lamp
ETC Source Four Lekos
Altman 575-watt HMI Fresnels
ETC Source Four Pars
SGPS Equipment
1,096 feet of 12-inch box truss
10-foot radius by 45-degree curved truss
1 1/2-Ton hoists
Gear
1
65 55 Flying Pig Systems WholeHog iPC with Wing
Martin MAC 2000 Profiles
Martin MAC 2000 Washes
20
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100.0612.20-21..SHOW.indd 20
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 10:59:59 PM
Sonicflood “This Generation” Tour
Crew
Promoter/Producer: Sonicflood Inc./IMB
Lighting/Video/Set Design: UpLight Technologies
Production Manager: Stan Shilliday
Lighting Designer/Director: David Surbrook
Automated Lighting Operator: David Surbrook/Lynsey
Glassbrook
Lighting Technicians: Lynsey Glassbrook/Collin Barnes
Video Director: Todd Hershberger
Gear
1
10 6
10 16 4
12 MA Lighting grandMA UltraLite
Coemar iWash Halos
Coemar iSpot 575s
Coemar iWash LEDs
Coemar ParLite LEDs
Coemar MiniCycs
ETC Source Four Pars on floor base
2
1
1
1
1
5
1
6
1
15 1
2
3
1
1
2
Leprecon ULD 360 dimmers
AC Lighting 3-phase power distro
Swisson DMX Splitter
2-Universe WDMX Wireless DMX system
Reel EFX DF-50 Haze machine with fan
Genie ST-25 Super Towers
60-foot Applied PRT truss
Applied 12-foot tall vertical truss
8-foot Applied 8-foot-tall vertical truss
Custom translucent PolyGal backdrop panels
Custom 10-foot Round Dual Vision screen
DaLite 7.5-foot x 10-foot Dual Vision screens
Christie 5K video projectors
NewTek VT Live switching and media server system
Spy Cams
Darryl Worley’s Tennessee River Run
Venue
Pickwick Landing State Park
Savannah, TN
Crew
Promoter/Producer: Ted Hacker for
the Darryl Worley Foundation
Lighting Company: Radiant Designs,
TLS Inc.
Production Manager/Set Design/
FOH engineer: Darrin Snyder
Lighting Designer/Director,
Lighting Operator: Jim Cozad
Lighting Technicians: Brian Palmer,
Glenn Zimmerman
Set Construction: Southern Aluminum
Rigger/Staging Carpenter: Tony Pizzoferrato
Staging Company: Concert Staging
Monitors: Josh Walton
Backline: Bucket
Tour Manager: Joe Morris
Pyrotechnics: Pyroshows
Video Director: Spencer Thomason
Video Company: Sutherland Video
Gear
1
11
140 Flying Pig Systems WholeHog
2 with Wing
PRTs
ETC Source Four PARs
2
2
5
12 1
6
2
3
5
2
2
3
ETC Source Fours
8-light Mole fay
4-cell cyc lights
High End Systems Studio Spots with CMY
Pixel Range PixelLine 1044s
48-way ETC racks
Lycian 1275 followspots
Risers
15x20 screens
Barco projectors
Cameras
20th Catalina Island Jazztrax Festival
Venue
Catalina Island Casino Ballroom, Avalon, CA
Crew
Promoter/Producer: Art Good, Jazztrax
Lighting Company: Pacific Coast Entertainment
Production Manager: Gregg Hudson
Lighting Designer/Operator: Mike Diocson
Lighting Director/Set Design/Video Director: Ryan Steidinger
Lighting Technicians: Brandon Domercq, Ted Berkey
Riggers: Joe Ward, John Koukios, Chris Dodd
Staging/Video Company: Pacific Coast Entertainment
Gear
Show Designer 2
High End Studio Spot 575s
High End Studio Command 1200s
Martin MAC 500s
Martin MAC 600s
Elation Power Spot 575s
ETC Source Four Lekos
ETC Source Four PARs
Martin P-2000 Fogger
Midget followspots
CM Lodestar 1-ton motors
30’ 12-inch Black
box truss
14-foot 12-inch box circle truss
Eiki LC-1100 video projectors
Da-Lite 9x12 screens
Folsom Presentation Pro
Sony DVCAM
Dell Laptops
1
8
4
2
2
6
12 6
1
2
4
30 1
2
2
1
1
2
www.PLSN.com
100.0612.20-21..SHOW.indd 21
2006
DECEMBERPLSN
2006JULY
PLSN
21 21
11/30/06 11:01:51 PM
INSIDETHEATRE
Capturing the Magic of
D
r. Seuss’ The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is a classic children’s book that
was adapted into an animated television program, and in recent years has also
become a hit movie with Jim Carrey and a
popular musical theatre production in San
Diego for eight years running. Now Dr. Seuss’
How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical
is tantalizing Broadway in its first limited
holiday run.
Grinch head electrician/light board operator Cletus Karamon certainly has his hands full with
this special engagement, 70minute production, which runs
12 times a week, including four
shows on Saturdays and three
on Sundays. But Karamon
— a 12-year veteran of touring Broadway shows who subs
over at The Producers — also
did A Christmas Carol the previous two years at Madison
Square Garden, and that show
ran 15 times a week. So he’s
used to intensity.
What is immediately striking about The Grinch is how it
works as a whole rather than
merely as another Broadway
spectacle. “I think lighting designer Pat Collins has done a
wonderful job of enhancing
the show and not making it a
Cletus Karamon
light show,” remarks Karamon.
“Pat’s a seasoned veteran. She
knows shows, and that it’s about the show.”
It also helps that there’s a strong ensemble
“It’s so subtle that people don’t
realize that snow is falling a lot
during the show.”
–Cletus Karamon
cast and that Patrick Page hams it up and
commands the stage as that lovable curmudgeon the Grinch.
“Patrick is definitely great,” concurs Karamon. “He’s wonderful to watch night after
night. John Lee Beatty’s set design is wonderful. They stay real true to the book. It’s
based on The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, but
it’s not word for word. It wasn’t a musical, so
now they’ve got these wonderful songs to
play with. It’s not over the top tech-wise.”
That being said, there is plenty of technology at work to make The Grinch the grand
show that it is. Prep commenced on September 15, and load-in began September 28.
Karamon and Collins worked together during the tech period in the Hilton Theatre,
which began with three days of dry tech and
a whole week of tech rehearsals prior to the
first preview on October 25. Since they were
dealing with a show that had a history, the
creative staff knew what they wanted, but
there were still some nips and tucks done up
to opening night. While Karamon runs everything — lights, moving lights, effects and
projections — from his position at the back
of the orchestra section, there were separate
programmers present for each during tech.
Karamon runs four boards for The Grinch.
“I am triggering all cues off of the Obsession
22
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.0612.INTHEATR.indd 22
By BryanReesman
2, sending MIDI to the moving light board, FX
board and triggering the projections off of
DMX,” he explains. “I have a backup Hog iPC
that’s MIDI-ed through, so they’re constantly
in sync with each other. So if I have a problem, I just have to switch the A/B DMX back
up and be right on line still with the backup
Hog iPC. The Obsession is the main conventional board, and I’m firing the projectors off
of that also. Scharff Weisberg put in a DMX
converter control into their towers so I could
fire their projectors from the Obsession, plus
I MIDI out to the iPC board, which is running
Hog 2 software. The Obsession is also MIDIing out to an Expression 2X for the effects,
but that’s running Expression 3 software.”
The stage for The Grinch features a high
arch framing the center of the action, flanked
on either side by smaller, rotating set pieces,
which allows for a lot of action to take place
in a short period of time. The arch includes
dozens of light bulbs that come on at various times. The foot lights in the front of the
stage are small PAR 38 cans with red lamps.
Little Who eyes light up in the show curtain
in the beginning, and there are also Diversitronics Finger Strobes in the black backdrop
and in the Christmas tree. A small set piece
that represents a faraway view of the Who
village, with little Who puppets that come
out and sing during the first and second
halves of the show, features LED light rope,
of which Karamon is not a fan. “I had some
issues with trying to fade it up at low levels,” he admits. “I had issues with it flickering
compared with something smooth like an
incandescent rope light.” So he spent some
time trying to solve that problem.
In total, The Grinch has over 450 running lights. “A lot of the front of house stuff
is 19° (ETC) Source Fours 750 watt,” reveals
Karamon. “The over stage stuff is PAR 64 PAR
cans, basically narrows and some mediums
on the ladders. Pat’s also using a bunch of
mini-strips over stage.” [See sidebar for full
instrument list. –ed.]
Projection on The Grinch is solely used
to generate a snow effect on a mesh screen
inside the arch. Mark Mongold did the projection design, and Scharff Weisberg supplied it. The two projectors are Barco RLM
R6+ Performers, they run throughout most
of the show. “It’s so subtle that people don’t
realize that snow is falling a lot during the
show,” notes Karamon. “There’s gently falling snow, faster moving snow and a still
snow that is used. There’s a little cloud effect with the fast moving snow that’s also
used.” These projections add to the atmosphere of the production.
The main Who house presented a challenge for the production team, as it integrated
all the different technological aspects of the
show. It is built on an automated turtle and
spins, and it has Color Kinetics LEDs and some
Arris. There is smoke for the chimney, a Christmas tree that lights up, and hanging balls. “It
required a lot of aspects from different departments — effects, moving lights — even
though there are no moving lights in the unit,”
explains Karamon. “The Color Kinetics were
programmed using the Hog console. It all
wound up running through the Hog because
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 11:07:52 PM
3
4
113
4
7
2
8
2
6
84
48
94
3
2
31
Lycian 1293 X3K followspots
10° ETC Source Four 750W
ETC Source Four PAR (NSP) 750W
ETC Source Four PAR (MFL) 750 W
PAR 64 (VNSP) 1kW
PAR 64 (NSP) 1kW
PAR 64 (MFL) 1kW
PAR 64 SN (NSP) 1kW
2’-8” ETC Source Four MultiPAR
(VNSP) [4 ckt] 750W
8’-6” ETC Source Four MultiPAR
(VNSP) [4 ckt] 2250W
8’-3” MR-16 Ministrip EYJ [4 ckt]
750W
we could just put the hot power feeds in the
Who house, and we took the WDS system from
City Theatrical to supply the DMX for a Leprecon six-pack dimmer that runs the LED window boxes, the tree, the hanging garland and
the Arris plus the Color Kinetics. We also interconnected it so that the smoke for the chimney would program through the Hog. Usually
the effects board, the moving lights and the
conventional units would all be separate, but
the Color Kinetics were already being done by
the Wholehog. For that situation it was best for
the Hog to take it all.”
Even though there is plenty of modern
technology used for The Grinch, “we still do
a little old school,” says Karamon. There are
seven dimmer racks because they are using
1K PAR cans, so they could not do any multiplexing.“There’s a little more technology there
with the Color Kinetics, the WDS system, LSG
machines, finger strobes, tiny foggers and a
few other tricks. On the sleigh we have wireless dimmers. The WDS system has some Color
Kinetics on there besides cute little hanging
hurricane lanterns on either side of the sleigh.
That’s all wireless, too.”
Effects-wise, the show has confetti (for the
climax) and fog, for which Look Solutions Tiny
Foggers and Le Maitre Power Foggers are used.
Karamon says that each chimney has its own
little Tiny Fogger in it, and they have a Power
Fogger for the snow puffs behind the Mount
Crumpet set. One stagehand randomly puts
little puffs of smoke out with a hand held, battery operated fogger.
“We’re also using the MDG Atmosphere
Haze Generator a little bit in the show, and
we’re also using four LSGs, low smoke generators,” continues Karamon. The LSGs operate off
of 350-pound CO2 tanks, and the show goes
through about 12 to 15 a week. He estimates
that they go through a quarter tank per show,
per machine.“There are two LSGs upstage and
two downstage. The upstage ones are just
hoses laid on the deck, and the other ones are
ducked into the floor, into the show deck, with
PVC and a grating so it gets it right out towards
the center of the stage. The LSGs have a Power
10
5
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1
1
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6
15
1
2
2
64
4
1
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6
1
8’-3” MR-16 Ministrip EYC [4 ckt]
750W
8’-3” MR-16 Ministrip EYF [4 ckt]
750W
8’ PAR 64 Strip (WFL) 1kW
8’ PAR 64 Strip (MFL) 1kW
Vari*Lite VL3000 Wash fixtures
3.2” Arri Fresnel
4.2” Arri Fresnel
4.2” Arri Fresnel 650w
Color Kinetics iColor Cove MX
Diversitronics Finger Strobe
Snow Shaker 100W
Ropelight 100w
RAM/10°
RAM/P64
LSG Low Smoke Generators
Le Maitre Power Fog
Look Solutions Tiny Fogger
Snow Machine
City Theatrical WDS Dimmer
Fog Industrial 9D Fog Machine by Le Maitre
that supplies the smoke. The LSG is just about
the CO2.”
For those who don’t know how an LSG
machine works, Karamon offers a quick
primer. “Basically instead of dry ice, a regular
smoke machine, in this case the 9D, shoots
into the LSG. The LSG has a chamber that is
receiving the CO2 to cool down the smoke so
that it lays flat to the stage like fog, and you
don’t have that dry ice issue of the stage getting wet and dancers slipping. We are using
a little bit of dry ice with a Tiny Fogger. When
the Grinch comes in from his cave, we shoot
a Tiny Fogger into a dry ice bin that has a fan
that pushes it out. Its stays a little low to the
ground, it’s kind of like a rolling fog. Nowadays people are mainly using the LSG for a
full stage effect, for low fog effects.”
The production team behind The Grinch
did not want the smoke to overwhelm the
stage, but humidity can throw a monkey
wrench into that plan, as evidenced two days
into the show’s official run when the November weather was unseasonably warm. “Believe
it or not, the weather will have an effect on the
fog day by day,” remarks Karamon. “I’ve had
the LSG machine on an inhibitive submaster.
Yesterday I was pulling it down, all the way out
at times, because it was too overpowering and
wasn’t going anywhere. It would come out to
the sixth, seventh or eighth row in the audience, so I would pull it back and start riding it
manually in the cues. The past two days have
been real tough. From opening night on it was
just humid, and the fog would just hang there
and not dissipate.”
With everything going on, the Grinch’s
light board op has his hands full. It’s a challenge he relishes. “This show is pretty cue intensive,” confirms Karamon.“A lot happens in a
70-minute show with 22 scenes, I have roughly
250 light cues and 220 call cues. There are 40
light cues in the Whatchama Who song alone.
There are so many different beats to hit with all
of the flashing and craziness going on, you really need to be with the orchestra on that. Who
has time to get bored?”
www.PLSN.com
100.0612.INTHEATR.indd 23
Gear List
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
23
11/30/06 11:08:33 PM
VITALSTATISTICS
Selecon’s Scott Church and Jeremy Collins
Selecon
Selecon HQ
Performance Lighting
Selecon’s Scott Church, Jeremy Collins, Andrew Nichols and
Phil Sargent pose around one of Selecon’s Rua followspots.
Scott Church in New Zealand
A Selecon worker in their manufacturing plant
Who:
Selecon Performance Lighting
What:
Design and manufacture of theatrical and entertainment lighting fixtures.
Where:
Auckland, New Zealand — HQ, R&D, manufacturing; Forest Hill, Maryland — sales,
stocking and distribution; Enschede, The Netherlands — sales, stocking and distribution; with additional market support personnel located in the UK, Germany, Australia and Asia.
When:
Founded in 1969. Bought by Jeremy Collins, managing director, and Andrew Nichols,
director of research & development, in 1985.
Full time employees:
45
Number of products in catalog:
39
Clients of Note:
Frederick P. Rose Hall; Jazz at Lincoln Center, NY; Cirque du Soleil’s Ka, Luc LaFortune,
LD; The Blue Man Group, Marc Brickman, LD.
Recent Projects of Note:
Smithsonian; Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts; Canadian Opera Company, Canada; Royal Opera House, Stockholm, Sweden; Chita Rivera, The Dancer’s Life
on Broadway.
Recent Company Highlight:
“We’re pretty happy that further stock and customer service investments in the States
are meeting the growing U.S. market demand for Selecon theatre lighting products.”
Claim to Fame:
Association of British Theatre Technicians Awards for Rama and Performer ranges;
2005 EDDY Award for Lighting Product of the Year for the Hui Cyc; ETS-LDI Product
of the Year: Lighting Entertainment 2004 for the Pacific 45-75 Zoomspot.
24
People might be
surprised to know:
That Selecon Acclaim Fresnels are the fixtures on the stands lighting the “body”
lying on the Louvre floor during that pivotal scene in The Da Vinci Code. “Move over,
Tom Hanks and Jean Reno!”
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.0612.34.VITAL.indd 24
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 11:04:53 PM
These companies made this event, and the opportunity to educate
the next generation of live event professionals, possible.
Gold
Sponsors
Silver
Sponsors
100.0612.25.ParnelliAD.indd 25
12/1/06 5:51:28 PM
hell
By Kevin M. Mitc
By KevinMitchell
Photos By LisaMarieHall
O
n a perfect Las Vegas evening, a recordbreaking audience gathered in a Venetian Hotel Ballroom to pay tribute to the
very best of the year in our annual “Oscars of the
Live Event Industry” affair.
“When you think about it, it’s against our
very nature to attend an event like this,” observed master of ceremonies and president
of Timeless Communications Terry Lowe during the ceremony’s opening moments. “We
tend to be the kind that shuns the spotlight.
We’d rather be pointing it. We’d rather EQ than
speak into a mic.”
With that disclaimer noted, a few laughs
had and the announcement of the PLSN/FOH/
Parnelli Scholarship to the University of Nevada,
Las Vegas, the ceremony began. The star-studded list of those handing out the awards included Carol Dodd, Buford Jones, Marilyn Lowey,
Michael Tait, Nook Schoenfeld, among many
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Jeremiah “Jere” Harris
• Audio Innovator Award: Bill Hanley
• Production Manager of the Year: Dale “Opie” Skjerseth, for his
work with the Rolling Stones.
• Tour Manager of the Year: David Milam, for his work with the
Toby Keith tour.
• Lighting Designer of the Year: Steve Cohen, for his work on
the Billy Joel tour.
• Lighting Company of the Year: Bandit Lites
• Regional Lighting Company of the Year: Delicate Productions
• Set Designer of the Year: Bruce Rodgers, for his work with
the Rascal Flatts tour.
• Staging Company of the Year: Brown United
others. Toby Keith’s tour was a big winner, garnering three Parnellis; other tours and events
recognized include the Rolling Stones, Rascal
Flatts, Billy Joel and Tool.
Longtime Bill Hanley fan Dave Shadoan of
Sound Image introduced the Hanley tribute
video highlighting the life of this great, influential
man who was honored with the Sound Innovator Award. A visibly moved Hanley took the stage,
thanking his family, most of whom were in atten-
dance. PRG’s vice president Darren DaVerna took
the stage in another highlight and spoke of Lifetime Achievement Honoree Jere Harris’ relatively
young, but inspiring career. Harris, who had many
friends, family and coworkers in attendance, gave
thanks to his parents, family and all those who
worked with and for him over the years.
There were two new awards handed out
this year: Video Rental Company of the Year and
Sound Designer of the Year.
• Video Director of the Year: Breckinridge Haggerty for his
work with Tool.
• Video Rental Company of the Year: Screenworks NEP
• Pyro Company of the Year: Pyrotek Special Effects.
• FOH Mixer of the Year: Dirk Durham, for his work with the
Toby Keith tour.
• Monitor Mixer of the Year: Earl Neal, for his work with the
Toby Keith tour.
• Sound Designer of the Year: Mick Potter, for his work on
Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular.
• Sound Company of the Year: Sound Image
• Regional Sound Company of the Year: Clearwing Productions
• Coach Company of the Year: Hemphill Brothers Coach Company
• Set Construction Company of the Year: All Access
• Trucking Company of the Year: Upstaging
• Rigging Company of the Year: Branam West Coast
• Freight Forwarding Company of the Year: Rock-It Cargo
The 2006 Parnelli Awards were made possible by Timeless Communications and its sponsors. Gold Sponsors: All Access; the Harman Group: AKG,
BSS Audio, Crown, dbx, JBL and Soundcraft; Martin Professional and Precise Corporate Staging. Silver Sponsors: ASI, Apollo, Brown United, Littlite,
PRG, Rock-It Cargo and Sound Image. The 2007 Parnelli Awards will be held in conjunction with LDI in Orlando.
A shot of the pre-show cocktail party, featuring a reunion
of Showlites employees.
The awards banquet, with stage in the background.
26
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.0612.26-27.parneli.indd 26
www.PLSN.com
12/1/06 6:06:32 PM
Money will help fund new entertainment technology program
Joe Aldridge of UNLV, announcing the new Parnelli/PLSN/FOH Scholarship.
President of Timeless Communications, publisher of PLSN, FOH, and now Stage Directions magazine, Terry Lowe, announced at the Parnelli Awards Dinner the launching of a
one-of-a-kind Entertainment Engineering and Design program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas ,and the Parnelli/PLSN/FOH Scholarship Fund that will be supporting it.
“We have sought and received advice and support from the industry leaders, and the
response has been overwhelming,” Joe Aldridge, UNLV’s head of the Entertainment Engineering program, said from the Parnelli podium early in the evening. “The establishment
of the Parnelli/PLSN/FOH Scholarship is evidence of that support.”
Aldridge explained that the goal of the program, which will be a degree program in
both the Colleges of Engineering and Fine Arts, will admit its first students in the fall of
2007 and will offer a curriculum including elements from Mechanical, Civil and Electrical
Engineering, Computer Science, Art, Architecture, Film, Music and Theatre.
“The goal is to find a way to address a growing need in the entertainment industry for
a new breed of students who would be well-versed in engineering principles while understanding the artistic demands of the entertainment industry,” Aldridge said.“We sincerely
appreciate Timeless Communications, and the Parnelli Awards and its sponsors, for investing in the future of students in the Entertainment Engineering and Design program.”
Jere Harris, of PRG, accepting the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Doug Adams from Pyrotek Special Effects, accepting the
award for Pyro Company of the Year.
The Delicate Productions crew with their award for Regional
Lighting Company of the Year: (L-R) Stephanie Smyth,
Delicate moving light tech; Gus Thomson, vice president and
Bill Sage, Delicate Electronics’ sales manager.
www.PLSN.com
100.0612.26-27.parneli.indd 27
Terry Lowe (L) with Bruce Rodgers, winner of the Parnelli
for Set Designer of the Year.
Dizzy Goslein of Bandit Lites, accepting the award for Lighting Company of the Year.
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
27
12/1/06 6:43:46 PM
John Brown of Brown United, smiling after taking home the
award for Staging Company of the Year.
Doug Masterson of Rock-It Cargo showing off his award for
Freight Forwarding Company of the Year.
Robin Shaw of Upstaging, holding her award for Trucking
Company of the Year.
28
Mark Haney (L) of Screenworks NEP, presenter Carol
Dodd and Danny O’Brien (R) of Screenworks NEP, after
Screenworks was recognized as Video Rental Company of
the Year.
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.0612.26-27.parneli.indd 28
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 9:12:30 PM
100.0612.ADS.indd 29
11/30/06 11:41:43 PM
By RichardCadena
Turmoil, Change, Re-Organization and Growth in the Industry
2006 will go down as one of the most
evenly divisible years in recent history. But other than a nice, round number, what
will we in the live event production industry
remember about 2006?
For most of us in the business, 2006
started out as a very busy year and then got
totally out of hand. When it was all said and
done, what, exactly, was accomplished by all
of those marathon meetings, endless travel
miles, countless phone calls, stacks of e-mail,
tiring late nights, hair pulling sessions and
cups upon cups of Starbucks coffees? For
starters, the good people at ESTA have suc-
Arrivals, Departures
and Gate Changes
The year started with
the traditional fireworks,
except this pyro was
industry-fueled.
Copyrights, Copywrongs
2006
In March, Prolyte successfully defended
its intellectual property when it filed a claim
against Guangzhou Kingway Performance
Equipment during the Pro Light + Sound exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany. The claim resulted
in a preliminary injunction and the confiscation
of catalogs and promotional banners, some of
which contained pictures and drawings lifted
from Prolyte’s own catalogs. Marina Prak,
marketing manager of Prolyte Products Group
commented; “Copyright issues and intellectual
property rights have become a big issue for our
industry.”
IP has been an even bigger issue for manufacturers of LEDs and digital luminaires. In May,
the United States District Court in the District of
Massachusetts awarded Color Kinetics court
costs and attorneys’ fees in its patent litigation
against Super Vision International, Inc. The
Court had previously granted all of Color Kinetics’ motions for summary judgment against
Super Vision, finding that all five of Color Kinetics’ asserted patents are valid and that each of
five Super Vision product lines infringes those
patents. Color Kinetics estimated the costs and
fees to be approximately $1.4 million.
Meanwhile, Robe Show Lighting continues
negotiations with PRG and High End Systems
in hopes of arriving at an agreement to license
the intellectual property with regards to their
digital luminaire, the Digital Spot 5000DT. The
luminaire was on display at PLASA in London
last September and it has been used on a show
in Germany. But, due to licensing issues, the
company chose not to show it at LDI and is not
yet ready to market it in North America.
You Spin Me Right Round 2006
In the department of mergers, acquisitions,
and spin-offs, PixelRange stands out for its surprising departure from James Thomas Engineering in the U.S. shortly before LDI. The new
company, led by Dave Thomas and Blaine Engle, relocated a short distance from their former
parent company in Knoxville, Tenn.
30
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.00612.30-31.1YR.indd 30
ceeded in making Architecture for Control
Networks, or ACN, a standard. Considering
the project was started more than 10 years
ago when Steve Carlson informed the Technical Standards Committee of ESTA that ACN
does not stand for “Acme Control Network,”
(Minutes, Technical Standards Committee,
2006
The year started with the traditional
fireworks, except this pyro was industryfueled. After Kristian Kolding vacated his
position as the CEO of Martin Professional in Denmark, eleven-year veteran Troels
Volver followed suit and left his position
as CEO of Martin USA. It’s only conjecture,
but the fact that he has not been seen or
heard from since might lead one to believe
that he has bid adieu to the industry.
Brian Friborg was brought in as his replacement, and a short time later, then-VP
of Sales Eric Loader left Martin for more
western pastures. Loader landed in la-la
land as the director of sales for Elation Professional and Acclaim Lighting. Although
Loader’s position at Martin was not to be
refilled, PJ Turpin left his sales position at
Packers versus Cowboys 2006
Thanks to Genlyte’s acquisition of
Strand Lighting late this season, the industry is poised for the greatest playoff between a Wisconsin team and a Dallas team
since the 1967 Ice Bowl between the Green
Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys. Genlyte has been building its franchise since
long before the days of acquiring Vari-Lite
in 2002, and their $1.25B line will be blocking for their newest player on the roster.
Though Strand comes with an historic
name and some impressive stats, it still has
some work to do to get into game condition. Already, though, they’ve connected
on some long passes with their Palette
console line hooking up with the Marquee
The Technology Ticker
2006
LEDs and media servers may have been
grabbing the lion’s share of the headlines,
but how they’re used was the real story in
2006. Bon Jovi was reportedly the first to
tour with 1080i high-definition video. Their
video system included three Vista Systems
Spyder 353s, seven Thomson/Grass Valley
LDK6000 and Ikegami HDL-40 HD cameras, a Grass Valley Kalypso video switcher, a
custom-built 40-foot wide Saco V9 HD LED
video wall, Main Light Industries SoftLED
curtains, Saco V9 LED “fingers” and Barco
G8 projectors.
And though LEDs are making great
strides in price and performance, they are
still more popular for displays than for general illumination. Two new LED products
that captured the imagination of the industry in 2006 were the Element Labs’ Stealth,
which debuted on Madonna’s Confessions
tour in the summer, and Barco’s MiStrip,
October 22, 1997), this is the entertainment
lighting equivalent of bringing peace to the
Middle East.
In addition to ESTA, many of us were extremely busy, judging by the events and highlights of 2006. Looking back, it’s been a wacky
year in an industry that is known for its wack.
Clay Paky and went to Martin to become
the national sales director of show, TV, and
theatre. At the same time, Ray Whitton returned to Vari-Lite after a five-year stint
with Martin.
Not to be outdone in the re-org department, High End Systems moved Jeff Pelzl
from his position as head of technical service to VP of sales. He took over for Bill Morris, who became executive VP of business
development. Later on in the year, Tony
Magana left High End and went to work for
Robe Show Lighting.
The industry bid adieu to two vetrins
this year, Rocky Paulson and Tony Gottelier. Paulson retired in January after 40 years
in the industry, while Gottelier passed away
in July, leaving behind a rich legacy of design, innovation, new product development
and other industry contributions.
software. Now their dimming line is getting
some great blocking from Entertainment
Technology’s IGBT technology.
Strand’ biggest rival, ETC, recently celebrated their 30th year in the league. As
the defending champions of dimming and
control, ETC only has to protect the ball and
keep from making any big mistakes. But
they’re not ones to play prevent defense.
Fred Foster, who is playing Bart Star to
Steve Carson’s Don Meredith, and his team
are not content to run out the clock. Instead,
they are marching down the field with the
new Eos console, the Congo jr, and a number of other new plays. The real winners here
will be the entire industry, who will benefit
from one of the most exciting matchups in
recent history.
which debuted on the aforementioned Bon
Jovi tour.
Under the heading of “A Whole New
Light,” High End System’s Collage Generator breathed new life into their DL.2 digital
luminaire. The ability to combine multiple
fixtures with edge blending should all but
silence critics who say the 5K ANSI lumen
projectors just aren’t bright enough.
And the single technology advance
that has the most potential impact could
be the arrival of ACN, or Architecture for
Control Networks protocol. The newest
control standard, which was approved in
October, opens the door to a multitude of
possibilities for future control and devices.
With networking and talkback capabilities, the sky is the limit in terms of the data
that can be passed back and forth. Just as
no one really understood the full implications of the approval of DMX in 1986, we
believe that ACN will produce far more
developments than we know.
Company re-org score card.
With Genlyte’s acquisition of Strand Lighting, the industry is poised for the biggest
playoff game between a Wisconsin team
and a Dallas team since the 1967 Ice Bowl
between the Green Bay Packers and the
Dallas Cowboys.
Bon Jovi hit the road with a
1080i HD video system.
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 11:20:52 PM
Fred Foster...is playing Bart Starr to Steve Carson’s Don Meredith...
The Stones Live at the Super
Bowl, Plus Keith Richards
2006
ABCs (Anniversaries, Birthdays
and Circles on the Calendar)
2006
When Showco built the first
Vari*Lite fixtures in 1981, they had little
idea of the impact it would have on the
lighting industry. Now, we think that it
might be the single most important
event in the history of entertainment
lighting. September 27 marked the
25th anniversary of the Genesis Abacab
show when the first Vari*Lite system
was used.
And if you’ve ever used a CM Hoist,
then you’ve contributed to a milestone
in hoist history. In February, CM shipped
its one millionth Lodestar chain hoist.
Finally, in October, USITT recognized Steve Terry by honoring him
as a USITT Fellow. Fittingly, the honor
comes 20 years after Terry was instrumental in helping to make DMX5121986 an industry protocol and in the
same month that ACN was accepted as
a new protocol.
The industry is but a microcosm
of the universe. Every so often the underbrush needs to be cleaned out and
the clippings recycled to provide the
nutrients for new growth in order to
produce more fruit. 2006 was a very
fruitful year.
Here’s to an even more fruitful
2007.
When books are closed on 2006, at least
two mega events will stand alone: the Rolling
Stones at the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics. The Super Bowl event is notable for the
sheer amount of equipment moved on and off
the field during the course of a few commercials; the Winter Olympics for the sheer amount
of equipment.
In the case of the Olympics, lighting designer Durham Marenghi and production designer Mark Fisher worked for several months
with a team that included lighting coordinators
Eneas MacKintosh and Nick Jones, and programmers Ross Williams, Mark Payne, Pryderi Baskerville and Emiliano Morgia. High
End Systems supplied programming support
in the form of Chris Ferrante, Frank Schotman and Jason Potterf. The lighting included
124 Coemar iSpot eXtremes, 64 ProWash
250LXs, 370 iWash 575 MBs, 130 Martin MAC
2000 Wash fixtures and 250 Robe ColorWash
1200 ATs. Four programmers using Flying Pig
Systems Wholehog 3 lighting consoles networked to each other and to three WYSIWYG
systems, and each with its own backup, were
used for control during the opening and closing ceremonies. In all, there were more than
900 moving heads, almost 1,000 LED fixtures
and 400-odd dimmers from various manufacturers for a total of 24,500 DMX channels,
which required the use of 21 DP2000s (data
processors) to distribute the data.
www.PLSN.com
100.00612.30-31.1YR.indd 31
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
31
12/1/06 6:09:01 PM
PLSNINTERVIEW
Visionary, Visualizer,
Visualist
Cameron Yeary makes sure
everyone else sees the light.
By RobLudwig
W
orking for UVLD, Cameron Yeary
has the opportunity to work with
some great minds in our lighting
industry, including the company’s principal
partners, John Ingram and Greg Cohen.
But as the resident visualist, he brings
something special to the team. In our PLSN
Interview, he explains the importance of previsualization, media servers and why better
results are a function of how much control
we have of the production.
Q How did you get into the business
and end up at UVLD?
A Cameron Yeary: I grew up at a lighting company in Dallas, Texas, called Gemini
Stage Lighting. At the time, Ingram Associates would have shows that came through
lot of the
car shows
that we
do are intensive in
their cueing, so we
use it. On
the other
hand, other shows that we have are basic,
like a drug company product launch, and
don’t have talent sections to them, so we
don’t use it unless the load-in is really tight
and we have no programming time whatsoever. Our firm really tries to focus on our programming speed and being able to cue the
show quickly. So, on our smaller gigs we can
deal without the pre-visualization. But on
“In years past, the lighting people
have had control over a large majority
of the visual aspect of a show.”
–Cameron Yeary
Gemini, and I would see them doing these
huge corporate shows, which was kind of
new to me at that point. I always thought,
“Why would Coca-Cola spend hundreds of
thousands of dollars to ship all this gear for
a show?”
Once I started doing shows, I was fortunate to meet John Ingram and Greg Cohen.
And after 9/11, when I got laid off from Gemini, I ran into Greg while I was doing freelance
work as a Syncrolite tech at a small car show.
He said they needed a programmer, and I
had spent a lot of time programming. I ended up doing one gig with John Ingram, and
it was all a whirlwind from there. I started doing more shows as a programmer for them,
and I think it was October of 2004 when they
asked me to join the firm. We stayed Ingram
Associates for about six months and then
brought in more and more people to end up
where we are now, which is UVLD.
At UVLD, I’m the young one, and a bit on
the geeky side. I’ve really been more of an asset since they’ve gotten into the media stuff
because I kind of devoured it, and I spent a
lot of my spare time understanding all of the
different things it takes to create media and
get it to work.
Q You’re a big proponent of that,
digital media and pre-visualization,
aren’t you?
A Yes. As far as pre-visualization, we don’t
use it all the time,but we try to use it on aspects
of the show that really need it. For instance, a
32
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.0612.XX.INTER.indd 32
our cue-intensive gigs we definitely use it.
And as far as media is concerned, it’s
been a crazy year. I can only think of a few
shows that haven’t had some type of media,
whether it’s a simple Main Light Industries
SoftLED curtain or using Barco MiPix and
MiSphere to build custom shapes and stuff
like that.
Q Do you create a lot of that content?
A Yeah, we create some. We’ve really got a
good 40 or 50 gigs of stuff that we’ve purchased as a firm. Some of it we’ve manipulated a bit, and some of it we kept intact. We
have made some content, because there are
those gigs that have special needs, like a pill
bottle for a drug show or spinning wheels
to represent cars. But a lot of it is stock stuff
that we believe represents the ideas, or the
looks, that we are used to providing on every show. It also depends on whether the
production wants to provide more money
to make content that’s custom to that show,
or if the producers themselves decide to get
involved in the process and make their own
stuff and provide it to us. We carry a good
stock. Besides the stuff that comes with the
High End Systems Catalyst, DL.2 or the Green
Hippo Hippotizer, we probably carry a good
40 to 50 gigs.
Cameron Yeary
Q How does using media change
the design timeline? Are you meeting
earlier with clients to discuss it and sell
them on the benefits of using media?
A It’s definitely a learning process. The
production clients that we’ve done several
shows with have really gotten the idea. So
now we’re talking about it a little earlier, and
we’re discussing different ideas. They’ll give
us a budget for creating media and they’ll
ask us what they can do to get the most out
of what we do. Then we have other clients,
where this is their first or second time using
any type of media server on a gig, and we
pretty much just use the stock stuff for them
and kind of show them the idea. We might
float some words across the background
so they get an idea of what media can do
for them. In years past, the lighting people
have had control over a large majority of
the visual aspect of a show, and now we’re
not only taking care of the visual aspect,
but we’re taking control of the video aspect.
We’ve taken control of just about everything
except the actual PowerPoint aspect and IMag. And in some shows we’re actually providing PowerPoint background support on
the I-Mag screen. The more seasoned the
client, the earlier in the process we try to get
together with them.
A show that we just finished was a basic meeting, except for the first 20 minutes,
which was this big extravaganza with flying performers, dancers and the whole nine
IBM IOD Users Meeting held at the Anaheim Convention Center. Produced by Drury Design Dynamics, Lighting Design and Media by UVLD
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 9:20:09 PM
FedEx National Sales Meeting 2006 , Held in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel. Produced by Pinerock. Lighting Design and Media by UVLD.
IBM IOD Users Meeting held at the Anaheim Convention Center. Produced
by Drury Design Dynamics , Lighting Design and Media by UVLD
yards. We really tried to concentrate on customizing that portion of the show and let
the rest of the show go to stock content.
Q How do you interface with the
video crew and PowerPoint specialists
— has that changed?
A It has changed. Now, a lot of times on
shows, where we are supporting the PowerPoint person, we are emphasizing certain
points. They may say something like, “This
year, we had 200 percent growth in sales,”
and we’ll show something that says “200%.”
For the most part, we’ll get a graphics
person that is used to doing PowerPoint, and
they will be at our disposal. As we’re working through different speeches, they can be
creating things in Photoshop that we can
load into the server. Then, if one of the creative directors has an idea, they can quickly
create a graphic, and in five minutes we can
have that graphic ready for them to see. We
really focus on using custom programs that
have been created for the different media
servers, and using people that have been
involved in the production for years, in a different way. Instead of them working directly
for the client, they are working for the lighting designers, so we can get the most out
of the media server technology, and show
the client the stuff as quick as possible. It’s
very streamlined.
fall through, which would be detrimental to
the show.
Q If you had to give yourself a title,
what would it be?
A A visualist. As weird of a word as it is, it’s
the word that best describes what we do.
Now, we’re in charge of the entire visual aspect of the show.
ALL PRODUCTION ALL THE TIME
Q What is your primary function at
UVLD — how much is design work
and how much is media support and
programming?
A It’s split about 25/75; 25 percent of the
time I design the show and do the gig myself, and about 75 percent I’m programming
and doing a lot of the visual media stuff. A
large aspect of our shows depends upon media. When a client decides to sign off on the
visual media stuff, it’s usually an important
part of the show. To have that portion not
work would be like having your set designer
YOUR
YOUR PASSION
PASSION IS
IS PRODUCTION.
PRODUCTION.
SO
SO IS
IS OURS.
OURS.
At Timeless Communications our staff includes
production company owners, audio mixers,
lighting programmers & designers.
We understand your world because we are a part of it.
Stay passionate. Read the industry’s #1 trade magazines.
magazines
Media by UVLD
www.PLSN.com
100.0612.XX.INTER.indd 33
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
33
12/1/06 6:39:32 PM
INSTALLATIONS
CSI:Miami
e
n
e
c
S
[Club
The Case
W
e here at the installation offices
of PLSN are always looking out for
you, the reader.
It was with that in mind that my crack
team of installation researchers and I recently risked life and limb to get the dirt on what
it really takes to put together a world-class
nightclub on the cut-throat streets of Miami,
Fla.
What my gumshoes found may not be
suitable for young viewers, as it is extremely,
and unavoidably, graphic.
The Suspect
Name: Dean Iacuzzo
Position: Senior designer, Underboss
Known Alias: Dino
Known Accomplices:
Robert ‘Lippy’ Lippolis
Scott Chmielewski
Richard Belliveau
Len Rove
The Interrogation
Club Scene Investigation [CSI]: All right
Dino. Just how long have you been running
this operation?!
Suspect [Dino]: Over twenty years. I
started in the mid-80s at a club called 701
South, one of the first all-video nightclubs
in the country. That’s where I first started using High End products, including High End
Systems Intellabeams and Cyberlights. I’ve
been steadily using their products for the
last twenty-some-odd years.
CSI: What do you know about Bricks
nightclub?
Dino: It’s in downtown Miami, in an area
34
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.0612.INSTAL.indd 34
]
n
o
i
t
a
l
Instal
By PhilGilbert
called Brickell. Brickell’s an up-and-coming
financial district of Miami right now. Most of
the major banks, trading houses, law firms,
are located in the Brickell area.
There was a relationship with the owner
in several clubs in the Florida area before.
Going back to 701 South in Daytona Beach,
as well as several other clubs we had done in
the area and some of the larger clubs we had
done in New York.
CSI: A “relationship,” huh? Tell me about
another…relationship…with Robert “Lippy”
Lippolis…How long have you been working
with him?
Dino: Over twenty years. Most of my career. He is, for lack of a better word, a sound
guru. He’s done, not only nightclub installations since the early ‘70s, but live shows for
Barry White, Radio City Music Hall and other
places in the New York area.
He’s been very close with people like
Richard Belliveau from High End Systems. He
always took their flagship stuff and brought
it to the market. When the Intellabeams
came out, he said “Great…let me have them.”
When the Cyberlight came out, he always
had to be the first.
When Richard Belliveau dreams up something in his head that is just so out there, he
always has to be the first.
CSI: Yeah, we know all about this Belliveau character. You better give us a straight
answer on this one. What kind of trouble
does Mr. Belliveau have you in this time?
Dino: A year-and-a-half ago, when this
project was in the design phase, we had
gotten wind of the DL.2 and its capabilities.
We flew down to Texas. We saw the product.
We said “That’s it. We need eight. We have to
have them.”
And that was the end of the story.
CSI: You’re going to have to do better
than that, Dino. I don’t believe that’s the end
of the story…
Dino: In the design phase — in talking with
some of the people down there — everybody
had cautioned Mr. Lippolis and myself: “Don’t
build a dance floor.” That whole Miami feel of
people just sitting down and doing nothing.
We bucked convention.We informed the owners that they needed a dance floor as well as a
light show.
Bricks is an innovative situation because
it’s the only permanent installation of eight
DL.2s in the country right now. The project
started in November of 2005, and completed
in June of 2006. So it was a seven-and-a-halfmonth project.
We’ve completely gutted the space and
made it into something that is immaculate.
I believe downstairs is 6000 square feet.
There’s also a rooftop that we completely redid that’s maybe 4500 square feet. There had
been several failed attempts in this space to
make it a nightclub. It was in complete and
utter disarray. A filthy warehouse would be a
good way to describe it.
It had that bad nightclub feel to it. That
dark, dank, bad smelling — some place that
you’d only want to be if you were inebriated,
or otherwise affected, and wouldn’t notice
your surroundings.
CSI: That’s the kind of stuff I’m looking
for. But we need more technical details. We
need to know how this operation works. So
keep talking.
Dino: The dance floor is the centerpiece.
The eight DL.2s are on the dance floor in an
octagon configuration. In the center of the
dance floor are these pieces of privacy glass.
Privacy glass has the ability that, when you
apply voltage to it, it goes clear; when you
take away the voltage, it goes frosted. So this
octagon in the center of the dance floor is
one of the surfaces the DL.2s can project on.
The use of the privacy glass as a projection
medium seems to wow a lot of people on
the industry side. No one ever thought of using a piece of glass.
People had mentioned to us that DL.2s
really need a central focal point. People
were using the idea of screens or some type
of retractable medium. But using electric
glass was something that no one had re-
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 9:52:19 PM
]
ally thought of — probably because it
was cost prohibitive. It’s a very expensive
medium to project onto. And no one had
really made the connection of “Oh, well,
make the glass frosted.” It was kind of a
“Duh” situation.
In the center of the electric glass is a
cryogenic fog effect using carbon dioxide.
Not only do we have the ability to project on the eight frosted screens, but we
can make that clear while we’re firing the
cryogenic effect and have another level of
projection medium.
CSI: Well, I think Cold Case
is looking for Ted Williams, but
that’s another continued on page 55
www.PLSN.com
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
35
11/30/06 9:52:56 PM
PRODUCTSPOTLIGHT
By NookSchoenfeld
L
ast week my editor called to ask if I
would take this new dimmer and give
it a test drive. I thought to myself, “Why?
A dimmer’s a dimmer, isn’t it?” But I said, sure,
send it on over, and I’ll take a look at it. It took
me less than a minute after plugging it in to
realize that Swisson, the international manufacturer of DMX devices, has indeed come up
with some serious modifications to the dimmer pack as we know it. I have never seen
such a well thought-out way to dim fixtures.
First of all, these dimmers are contained
in 19-inch rack-mounted modules. This is not
a new concept, but one that I wish all manufacturers would follow. Each of the 120-volt
“U.S. version” dimmers contains a configuration of either 12 x 1.2kW or 6 x 2.4kW dimmers. The dimmers take 3-phase power input
and can operate on anywhere from 85 to
130 volts AC. The dimmer will actually stand
up to 240 volts AC without harming it. Each
module can handle up to 50 amps per phase.
There are three separate 55-amp breakers on
the front of the rack as well.
On the back of the 1.2kW and 2.4kW rack,
there are two Socopex connectors. There is a
to bring them up to full if necessary. In other
words, if you black out your master fader,
these dimmers can still glow the bulbs. It’s
great for store fronts who wish to leave their
window displays glowing all night, but not at
full. Simply put the console on a timer so it
shuts off at 9 p.m., and the window display
will still glow as people walk by. These potentiometers can run in HTP or LTP mode.
Each rack module has an LCD display
where the techs can assign different functions to each dimmer in the module. Besides
setting the DMX address for the module, you
can soft-patch each dimmer accordingly. In
the rack, you could tell each dimmer to be
controlled by a single DMX channel. There is
a fast flash function that is good for banging
on moles and PARs. The LCD will also display
the voltage coming into the rack. This brain
will automatically shut down the dimmer if
it is getting over-voltage, but it will not kill all
the dimmers if one leg suddenly receives too
much. All other failures, such as over-temperature or under-voltage, will only affect
that particular phase, allowing the dimmer to
continue functioning normally. The LCD will
also
display
how
many
amps are being used by
each particular
dimmer.
Each individual dimmer
channel on a module comes with three LEDs
and an on/off button on the front. The green
LED will show the output level of the dimmer when it is emitting AC. The yellow LED
shows if there is current, meaning there is a
load on the circuit being fed by the dimmer.
No yellow LED means something is still unplugged or the lamp has failed. There is a red
LED as well. When this LED is on, the dimmer
is off. If it is blinking, it has turned off due to
an overload (too much wattage assigned to
one dimmer) or a short circuit in the cabling.
The on/off switch can be used to kill a dimmer at any time (e.g. the gel is burning up) or
to re-arm the dimmer once the correct load
is placed on it.
The brain in the rack can limit the output of the dimmer. This can be a tech’s savior if he is short on dimmers. For instance, a
4-light Mole Fay may draw 2600 watts — a
tad too much for a 2.5K dimmer. By limiting
the output of the dimmer to 105 volts, you
can insure that the bulbs will never go to
full and blow the breaker by drawing too
many amps. On top of this, any load can be
dimmed. No dummy loads are necessary
just so you can dim down the rope lights
on the stage steps. The minimum load on
this dimmer is actually zero watts, if you
can believe that.
The list price for both 120V U.S. versions
of these dimmers is $5,300.00
The upside to this dimmer is that it is
modular (fast and easy for repairs); it can run
in stand-alone mode without a console, and
it has all the bells and whistles a tech would
want. The only downside is that the modules
are heavy. But this is certainly a small disadvantage compared to the fact that they are
built sturdily; they have 100% protection
against short-circuiting, and they have 100%
over-voltage protection.
This dimmer can run a small show
or display without any console.
three-foot tail to plug into any AC distro you
own. It can run efficiently in temperatures up
to 35 degrees C (86° Farenheit) while three
internal fans run continuously. The dimmers
are controlled by DMX512, and the unit is
RDM-ready.
What distinguishes this dimmer from
most of the rest? The XSD Sine Wave keeps
the waveform in a perfect sine wave while it
controls the amplitude of AC. Most dimmers
utilize thyristors, triacs or SCRs to control
the voltage applied to the filament of a conventional fixture. It controls the voltage by
regulating the duty cycle, switching it on at
a certain time during the cycle, resulting in a
chopped wave. This uneven wave can cause
harmonics that can overload the neutral in
a four-wire, three-phase system, and really
disturb the audio and video vendors you are
sharing power with at a gig. The sine wave
technology guarantees that there are no
harmonics caused by the dimmer ramping
up and down. You will never again hear the
ping sound of a PAR filament being slammed
to full either. It’s great for TV and symphony
lighting. The sine wave technology will increase lamp life as well.
Now comes the really cool stuff for the
techs. This dimmer can run a small show or
display without any console. There are potentiometers on the front of each dimmer,
as well as five different user levels that can
be set with a pass code. Rather than have a
single hot-patch switch on a dimmer, each
one can be set to any desirable level. Imagine
lighting a trade show display with 16 Lekos
and a dozen PARs. Just leave the dimmer
backstage and adjust the level on each dimmer by trimming the pot. No need for a console or a control snake for the simple show.
You can also use these potentiometers to set
a low level on the dimmer, but use a console
36
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.0612.36.PSPOT.indd 36
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 11:09:56 PM
INSTALLS • INDUSTRIALS • FILM/TV • THEATRE • CONCERTS
P R O J E C T I O N CO N N E C T I O N
Blind Guardian Goes Digital
CZECH REPUBLIC—German heavymetal band Blind Guardian road tested
Robe’s new DigitalSpot 5000 DT fixtures,
which were specified by LD and video operator Andreas Fiekers.
While preparing for the “A Twist In The
Myth” tour, Fiekers became aware of the imminent release of the DigitalSpot 5000DT.
German rental company Satis&Fy (suppliers of the European tour) has used Robe
moving lights for some time, and Andreas
Drees, CEO of Satis&Fy’s touring division,
decided that the time was right to purchase some of the brand new fixtures. It
was also a logical step for Andreas Fiekers
to integrate the DigitalSpot 5000 DT into
his design.
This first full tour for the DigitalSpot
5000 DT actually featured pre-production
units. The DigitalSpots were used for projecting onto the backdrop and set using
a diverse selection of content for the different songs, including surreal black and
white footage of a
man getting crazy,
strange landscapes,
animated artwork
of the band’s album covers, snippets of their videos
and graphics, all of
which was switched
and synchronized to
the music.
Most of the content was produced by
Fiekers, with some animation parts made
by Stanimir Lukic and his team at Rock The
Nation in Belgrade.
Robe’s Ales Grivac was also suitably impressed with the DigitalSpot’s first touring
performance. “It was vitally important to
us to ensure that these products are completely roadworthy. Having them on a hard
rocking heavy metal act where they get
plenty of serious use was the ideal scenario and environment for this to happen.”
Fiekers was also able to offer invaluable feedback to the Robe R & D team for
enhancing and streamlining the DS 5000’s
future performance. With the digital world
in constant development, the latest software updates for DigitalSpot users will be
available on Robe’s Web site.
The next software feature will be the
“collage” effect — the merging of images
from two projectors to create one bigger
picture (independently of a media server),
which will make the unit more versatile.
with a MiPix circular surround
in the center. VersaTubes were
installed in the stairs, band risers and DJ booth. The camera
system consisted of four Sony
D35 cameras, and projection
was two SLM R12s, shooting rear
projection onto two 15x20-foot
screens.
Touring on behalf of XL Touring Video was projectionist/crew
chief Jason Lowe; engineer Josh
Alberts; LED techs Jason Baker,
Matt Ellar and Johnny Jordon;
and camera ops Mart Stutsman,
Lonnie Stoner and Randy Mizell.
Inside...
39
Glam LEDs
Low-res LED walls pack punch on
Scissor Sisters tour.
41 Video Digerati
How to keep it smooth with
frame-blending.
42
Art in design
Inspiration can come from Monet
or graffiti.
N. HOLLYWOOD, CA — XL Touring Video
recently completed their project as video
contractor for Mariah Carey’s “The Adventures of Mimi Tour 2006,“ which kicked off
this summer in Miami following two miniconcerts in Tunisia and finished up in Japan
at the end of October.
XL worked with production manager
Harold Jones, production designer Justin
Collie of Art Fag LLC, Stewart White of Control Freak and video director Chris Keating
to provide four Barco I-10 LED walls, which
consisted of two 7x7-foot LED walls stage
left and right, a 13x7-foot LED wall upstage
center and a 6x6-foot LED wall downstage.
A large “M” made of MiPix framed the stage
GAITHERSBURG, MD — Video RoadshowSM debuted at the U.S. Air Force Memorial Dedication October 14-15, 2006, at
the Pentagon in Arlington, Va.
Each Video RoadshowSM houses a hydraulically raised 9 x 12-foot Barco D7 LED
screen plus a control room with switching
and playback equipment. The screens rise to
a top height of 18 feet and can be rotated
360 degrees for optimal viewing.
One technician handles delivery and opcontinued on page 38
Steve Jennings
Mariah Tour Gets XL-ent
U.S. Air Force Dedicates
Memorial At Pentagon
www.PLSN.com
100.0612.37-39.PROJCONN.indd 37
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
37
12/1/06 6:13:18 PM
NEWS
Infor Conference Held in Orlando
NEW YORK — Scharff Weisberg provided
two Main Light Industries Soft-LED/Scrim
panels as a backdrop for video imagery at
the Infor conference, a conclave held in Orlando by the world’s third-largest provider
of enterprise software.
The drapery product is made of heavyduty woven fabric backed by a removable
Velcro liner, which permits projection, lighting and scenery elements behind it. The
scrim allows a three-dimensional look on
a stage or on a set and can accept video
signal, ideally from a media server. It comes
in an 8x33-foot configuration and is lightweight, easy to pack and easy to set up. The
tri-color surface mount LEDs are 4x4-inch
resolution.
“We built a proscenium-type opening
with a live band upstage, which we wanted
to fade in and out,” explains production designer Andy Warfel of Andy Warfel Environment Design. “We were looking at newer
technology and discovered that Scharff
Weisberg had Soft-LED/Scrim. It’s ideal for
large venues with great viewing distances,
and we had a large thrust stage in a ballroom with an audience of 2,000 wrapped
around three sides. We installed the LED/
Scrim between the band in the back and
the talking heads in front with a trip rig to
pull it up when needed.
“The cool thing about the product is
that it’s very flexible; it combines a techno
FOH view of the Infor stage
background with scrim-like properties, so it
can do bleed-through effects,” Warfel continues. “The Soft-LED/Scrim was easy to set
up and turned out to be the best solution
for what we wanted to accomplish visually.
Very low res, moving imagery — graphic
eye candy, stock shots of water, flags, fire,
organic textures — looked great on it. I’d
use it again in a heartbeat.”
The production company was TKG in
Chicago. The executive producer was Shalyn
Walsh. Tony Seikman of Durango, Coloradobased The Wit Company was the technical
director. John Featherstone of Lightswitch
was the lighting designer.
Charity Event Awakens New York
NEW YORK, NY—MB Productions
(MBP), in association with Kingdom Entertainment and Empire Entertainment,
was selected as the video staging partner for the “Black Ball“ event, a benefit
for the Keep a Child Alive (KCA) organization, held at the Hammerstein Ballroom,
New York City, on Thursday, October
9, 2006.
At the annual fundraiser for AIDS- and
poverty-stricken children in Africa, MBP
produced a 15-foot high by 20-foot wide
video image utilizing a double-stacked
Digital Projection HIGHlite 12000Dsx+
DLP Projector, a Sony D50 SDI Camera
Package and Beta sp playback facilities.
The whole show was recorded on five
Sony DSR-1800 DV cam recorders. The
screen displayed
a seamless mix of
live camera images, PowerPoint
logos and a series
of short films that
showcased
the
important
work
of KCA.
In
addition,
MBP’s screen displayed videos that
highlighted
the
major
contributions of special
honorees, including Richard D. Beckman, president of
Condé Nast Media Group; Paul Farmer of
Partners in Health; Carol Dyantyl of Ika-
Graphics From The “Black Ball” event video
geng Ministries in Soweto, South Africa;
and Glamour Magazine’s Woman of the
Year, Iman.
U.S. Air Force Dedicates
Memorial At Pentagon
continued from page 37
-eration. Set-up and tear-down are estimated to complete within 30 minutes,
eliminating expensive labor costs associated with traditional LED walls. Each
Video RoadshowSM has an on-board
generator, can run on shore power, requires no additional structures and is
virtually weatherproof.
“Video RoadshowSM will change
the economics of special events, targeted advertising and experiential marketing,” said Jeff Studley, president of CPR
MultiMedia Solutions. “Now businesses
and organizations of all types and sizes
38
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.0612.37-39.PROJCONN.indd 38
can take full advantage of a technology proven to attract attention, boost
attendance, increase sponsorship and
enhance audience response — without
the crushing expense.”
Video RoadshowSM can be used
for indoor and outdoor events held
at fair grounds and convention centers, in parking lots or on city streets,
including spor ting events, concer ts,
festivals, public information display,
political campaigns, grand openings, product launches, trade shows,
religious celebrations and public
safety needs.
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 9:58:56 PM
UK Music Hall of
Fame Contracts
Video Screens
LONDON — XL Video Ltd. supplied LED
screens, VersaTUBES, projection and Catalyst Playback for the 2006 UK Music Hall of
Fame event, staged at London‘s Alexandra
Palace on Tuesday, November 14. It is the
second year running that XL has supplied
the prestigious Endemol-produced show.
XL’s team was project managed by Paul
Wood, working with production manager
Paul-Ant Violet and set designer Bill Laslett.
The main “Awards Package” screen was
a traditional 6 x 4 meter BP screen, positioned stage right and fed by one of XL’s
new Christie Roadster S+20 HD projectors.
The up-stage LED screen was composed
of 80 panels of Lighthouse R16, flown in
three columns.
Scenic projection was used on a silvergrey gauze in the mid-center stage area,
with XL supplying four further Christie
Roadster S+20s that were double stacked
and soft-edged together to form one 9-meter wide by 5-meter high image.
XL also supplied 112 Element Labs 1meter long VersaTUBE LED fixtures, which
were used to create a hall through the
set, consisting of 10 seven-meter VersaTUBE
ribs
upstage
and
six
ribs downstage. The raised performance
platform stage left was also dressed with
15 VersaTUBES around its base.
For video playback, XL supplied three
dual-channel Catalyst v4 digital media
servers, with sources either fed through to
the CTV OB truck and mixed with EVS, or
straight to the screens.
XL’s crew were Graham Vinal and Gareth
Manicom (on LEDs), Gerry Corry (projectionist) and Simon Pugsley (who took care
of all-things Catalyst and VersaTUBE), working in collaboration with Catalyst director/
operator Ian Reith.
The Scissor
Sisters Glitz It Up
NEWS
NFL On CBS Updates Stage
NFL on CBS set
PHOENIX, AZ—The 2006-2007 NFL season kicked off with Spyders in the studio,
Vista Systems Spyders. A pair of networked
Spyder 380 and 204 models support a large
LED wall in the background of the new set
for NFL On CBS, the CBS Sports studio show
that airs Sunday in High Definition during
telecasts of NFL games.
Using Vista Systems software, the
Spyders control the display of game clips
and other video feeds, as well as animations, stats and other graphics. The Spyder supports an upstream Leitch HDSDI
router for access of any source required
for display.
CBS Sports was exploring a number of
image-processing options when it visited
the Vista Systems booth at NAB earlier this
year. “Ease of use and superior image quality
were prime factors in CBS Sports’ decision to
purchase Spyder for its NFL On CBS telecast,”
notes Victor Vettorello, director of applications engineering at Vista Systems.“Having a
control environment that a broadcast technical director can comfortably be at ease with
was vital to the decision.”
The Scissor Sisters show
elPars are only really used for the last two
songs, it’s well worth the wait.”
The concept behind the wall of PixelPars
is to produce a ‘70s light box. Programmed
by Dan Hardiman using an M-Box extreme
to play video across the matrix, it was not
the intention to make the video obvious,
and the whole wall is intended to look like a
lighting fixture, rather than a low definition
screen.
Dave continues: “The songs where the
PixelPars are introduced have very different inspirations, and the wall is used to try
and reflect those influences. Be it a giant underlit dancefloor for ‘Dancin’ or sleazy strip
club signs for ‘Filthy Gorgeous.’ The ‘70s look
keeps the back white backdrop to diffuse
the light and give a more colourful backdrop. For ‘Filthy’ we drop the Kabuki to give
more beams and a heavier backlit look.”
The show is controlled by a Wholehog IPC, and all lighting is supplied by
PRG Europe.
www.PLSN.com
100.0612.37-39.PROJCONN.indd 39
LONDON — New York rockers the Scissor Sisters are currently on tour promoting
their new album Ta-dah. Flamboyant by
name and by nature, this band doesn’t do
low-key.
Lighting designer Dave Ross first met
the band over two years ago when they
headlined their first ever show in the UK at
The Scala London. Dave specified numerous
PixelLines 1044s for the gig, which started
an 18-month stint of touring. The 1044s soon
became a big feature of the show, especially
in the US, where 1044s were relatively new
to the market.
For this tour, Dave works alongside show
and set designer Roy Bennett. An integral
part of the design is a flat wall of 144 PixelPar 90s 16 fixtures wide by nine fixtures high
upstage behind two Kabukis.
Dave explains, “The band has very set
ideas concerning the use of lighting and
video, and they are always keen to build
their show gradually. An although the Pix-
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
39
11/30/06 9:59:15 PM
VIDEO NEW PRODUCTS
»
»
Da-Lite Series 300 Lace and Grommet
Frame System
Fujinon XA88x8.8BESM HD Telephoto Lens
The Da-Lite Series 300 Lace and Grommet Frame System is a large venue projection
screen constructed of three inch diameter aluminum tubing. It includes lacing
cord and positioned “S” hooks for attaching a Da-Lite Lace and Grommet projection screen surface. It has a black powder
coated finish, or can be ordered with the
optional seven-inch-wide Pro-Trim masking cover that conceals the screen binding
and lacing cord. The Series 300 is also available as a curved model with any degree of
single axis curve and is recommended for
use with any of Da-Lite’s vinyl front projection surfaces in sizes up to 90 feet wide, and rear projection surfaces up to 40 feet wide.
Fujinon’s new XA88x8.8BESM HD telephoto lens features 88x magnification with the widest focal length of 8.8mm to 777mm. It is also available with Fujinon’s patented Precision Focus
Assist (PFA). Its dimensions are 258mm
(H) x 270mm (W) x 625mm (L). It has
an F number of 1.7 from 8.8mm to
348mm, and drops to F3.8 at 777mm.
It is equipped with Fujinon’s exclusive
GO- Technology, designed to improve
image resolution and chromatic aberrations at all focal lengths. A new
shroud design incorporates a tightly
sealed, dust-proof housing that provides protection against dust contamination, and there is a built-in moisture
protection system.
Da-Lite Screen Company • 574.267.8107 • www.da-lite.com
Fujinon • 973.633.5600 • www.fujinonbroadcast.com.
»
»
Altinex AVSnap® v3.0.0
AVSnap v3.0.0, is an AV system design and integration program and features a fully Webenabled interface that allows sharing of documents and presentations across the globe, and
downloading manufacturer libraries all within in the same AVSnap environment. Additional
changes with this updated version include: redesigned print preview for accurate document
printing; support for 14 languages; wholly editable menus in 8 different languages; direct access to manufacturer libraries and sample projects; Enhanced DXF import functions for compatibility. AVSnap offers weekly online training.
Altinex, Inc. • 714.990.6088 • www.avsnap.com
»
Digital Projection International Highlite
10000Dsx+ and Highlite 16000Dsx+
Panasonic’s Pro:Idiom plug-in card can support Panasonic’s full range of professional displays, including Panasonic’s new 50-inch and 65-inch native 1920 x 1080p full HD resolution
professional displays, while protecting satellite-delivered HD programming and video-on-demand content against piracy at every point in the distribution chain, including the television.
Panasonic 9-Series professional plasma displays offer: high contrast ratio even in bright rooms;
60,000 hours of continuous performance; ultra-compact design with the speakers positioned
under the screen; an ultra-wide viewing angle; a durable, “child-friendly” scratch-resistant glass
surface; and the flexibility of a multi-function slot architecture for adding and upgrading connectivity options and features.
Panasonic Broadcast • www.panasonic.com/hospitality.
Digital Projection International’s latest 3-chip DLP™ Professional Series projectors, the
Highlite 10000Dsx+ and Highlite 16000Dsx+, offer 1400x1050 resolution and increased
brightness. The Highlite 10000Dsx+ delivers 9,500 ANSI lumens at 2000:1 contrast, while the
16000Dsx+ produces 13,000 ANSI lumens at 1800:1 contrast. The new lamp and lamp module
are backwards compatible
with DP’s previous Highlite
Professional series models.
Four-side soft-edge blend is
standard, and the units can
be customized to include
advanced options such as
seamless cross-fade and userdefinable geometric warp.
Active stereo display (3D) at
resolutions up to 1400 x 1050
at 96 Hz is also supported.
The Highlite 10000Dsx+ is
offered at $59,995 MSRP, and
the Highlite 16000Dsx+ for
$69,995 MSRP.
Digital Projection International • 770.420.1350 • www.digitalprojection.com
Panasonic Broadcast Pro:Idiom-Equipped
Plasma Displays
»
PixelRange PixelLine Micro E
The PixelRange PixelLine Micro E features 174 red, green and blue LEDs with an
estimated 16.7 million color combinations
and a beam angle of 20° conical as standard.
It also features a new built-in effects generator, capable of more than 1000 effects and
up to 29 channels of effects control with independent DMX start addresses. Programmable offset allows for synchronizing effects over multiple fixtures. The Micro E can
be controlled via an external source or in a
stand-alone master/slave set-up. It comes
with PowerCon 20A chassis-mounted input
and output sockets fitted. A yoke is supplied
standard for hanging or floor standing. It uses
a silent convection cooling system. Black powder coating is standard, but other colors are available to order. Dimensions are
205mm (L) x 84mm (H) x 167mm (D), 155mm (H) with yoke. The Micro E is IP 20 rated.
PixelRange • 865.588.7660 • www.pixelrange.co.uk
40
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.0612.40.PCNP.indd 40
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 11:11:41 PM
VIDEO DIGERATI
Taking the
Frame Blender
Off
M
any media servers feature a control
channel for Media Play Speed. How
does this feature affect your content?
Have you ever used it? Well, if you have, you
will very quickly know whether or not that media server uses frame interpolation, also called
frame blending or video smoothing.
When a piece of content is created, it will
be rendered at a specific speed in frames per
second, or FPS. Typically, that value will be15,
25, 29 or 30 FPS, depending on the format of
the media, the codec and even the hardware
being used for playback. If a piece of video
“Choppy”
the missing frames,”which is the effect of frame
interpolation.
How Does Frame Interpolation Work? PC
Frame interpolation is the process of creating intermediate video frames based on the
data in two consecutive frames of encoded
video. Technically, pixels are displaced by
mixing pixels from the source in the current
frame with source pixels from previous or future frames. Basic frame blending is used to
compute intermediate pixels and to produce
anti-aliased results in the render. In effect,
frame interpolation
increases the frame
rate of encoded video
at the time of decoding. Essentially, the
content is rendered
with a codec, or compression/decompression
information. The decoders in the media server’s software can compare the information in
the frames of the movie and interpolate the
differences between them, thereby filling in
what is missing. The algorithms being applied
by the decoders compensate and estimate
the motion and smoothing, which creates
smoother motion at slower FPS values. These
algorithms also do not involve any special encoding options; this means that they do not
add any overhead to the content, and won’t
make your content larger.
In the lighting world, we are very accustomed to being able to increase or decrease
The result made lighting
designers cringe.
content is rendered at 30 FPS, what happens
when you use the Play Speed control channel and slow the movie down? That actually
depends on the software and media server.
When a piece of 30 FPS content is being
played back at its rendered speed, all will appear normal, and each frame will blend cohesively into the next. But when that same piece
of content is played back at 15 FPS (overriding the content’s rendered frame rate via
the Play Speed control channel), the content
will be playing back at half of its rendered
speed, and it can appear “jerky” or “choppy” because you have time-stretched the
footage — that is, unless the software can“ fill in
the speeds of our effects with a control channel without compromising the smoothness
of the effect. Rotating a gobo is just one example, as are pan & tilt. Remember when you
would program an 8-bit pan/tilt fixture on
a DMX console and try using a really slow
fade time? The result made lighting designers cringe. As a result of that feedback from
designers, the manufacturers of intelligent
lighting fixtures soon doubled the number of
pan & tilt channels and increased the resolution of a pan/tilt crossfade to 16-bit, and we
suddenly went from a mere 256 bits of data
in a crossfade to 65,536 bits of data in a crossfade. Once that change occurred, pan and tilt
smoothness during a slow crossfade quickly
became the signature of a quality automated
lighting fixture, and all manufacturers followed suit by offering full and reduced resolution modes for their fixtures.
Now, here we are in a lighting world that
is quickly converging with the video world,
but we lighting designers and programmers
expect the same results from our digital lighting fixtures that we already get from our automated lighting fixtures. Thus, manufacturers
of media servers are being pressed to make
improvements in order to match our expectations. A media server that offers frame blending has the benefit of being able to generate
higher quality slow-motion video since it
“inserts” newly interpolated frames into any
gaps between frames, which we perceive as
spatial motion smoothing. This is where com-
By VickieClaiborne
panies like Green Hippo are leading the way,
with their latest version of the Hippotizer.
I had the opportunity to sit with the developers of The Hippotizer while at LDI in
October to check out their latest version
of software, v3. This version of their media
server has an extremely well designed frame
blending feature that makes content appear remarkably smooth at really low frame
rates, and this makes it an incredibly powerful
digital lighting tool. It is also one of the first
digital lighting media servers to make use of
a frame interpolation technique to produce
these impressive results. In fact, it does interpolation so well that it is next to impossible
to tell that the content was not created at the
lower frame rate. I believe that all media servers will need to perform at this level if they
want to be competitive at the pro level, because products like the Hippotizer, with it’s
ease of use and powerful playback capabilities, will keep raising the bar. Advancements
in new technology and hardware, along with
the development of new software that makes
use of those technological improvements,
contribute to increased performance capabilities of our media servers, and they will only
continue to shape the future of our digital
lighting world.
Vickie Claiborne (www.vickieclaiborne.com)
is an independent programmer and training consultant, and can be reached at [email protected].
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www.PLSN.com
100.0612.41.VIDIG.indd 41
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
41
11/30/06 10:01:55 PM
Byline: Bob Boniol
feat ure
Some of the graffiti art on Exchange
Visuals for the Live Event
By BobBoniol
he other day I was reading about
a program called “Exchange.” Created by noted graffiti artist Jersey
Joe, Exchange is a forum for some
of the world’s foremost graffiti artists to exchange seed art (in this case, each others’
names, in their own definitive script style)
and develop each other’s art to a finished
piece with the influence of their own style.
Some of the world’s most famous and pro-
T
tionship with the building.
Finally, I found myself viewing a segment of MaThew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle.
The Cremaster Cycle is an astonishing expression of myth, narcissistic cultural sparkle, fetish, sport and symbolism. It took the
shape of five (nonlinear) films, as well as
extensive installation art, sculpture, photography and drawing. Barney samples our
hyperactive culture and has constructed a
piece that exposes it at the same time it
flaunts it.
Okay, so now you are probably asking
yourself, what does this have to do with
designing projections or visuals for a live
show? Why have I hijacked the normally
super-rational and useful columns to be
found here in PLSN?
Because design must be informed by
context. As visualists, projection design-
occasion to sleep off the previous night’s
adventures with LSD. It shouldn’t be. Art
history has a bad rap.
One of the influences, the contexts I’m
talking about here, is art history. I was one
of those sleepers back when I took it, and
now I can’t get enough of it. Ah, the irony.
Education is wasted on the young… Or
maybe the young are wasted during education. Some of both, probably. Now, I find
myself going back to those books, cracking them open again, and it’s fascinating.
Discovering the details of the widespread
“scene” of which Van Gogh was a part, the
way his studio brimmed with the activity
of assistants, how they were all participating in a massive movement in Dutch arts
is cool. There are lessons of collaboration
and style to be found there. The act of
learning to understand how Monet’s life-
Random influences can have extraordinary surprises.
lific graffiti artists (Rime, Revok, YES2, Ewok,
Snow and more) have become involved.
Later, I was reading a fascinating interview with Rem Koolhaas, one of the most
amazing architects alive. He discussed how
every building manifests by deploying a
certain sequence of circulation, and how
this creates narrative. He elaborated about
Seattle’s public library, and how moving
through the building brings a perception
of instability to what is a very stable (and
completely remarkable) structure. This becomes part of the patron’s narrative rela-
The Seattle Public Library
42
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.0612.42.43.indd 42
ers or VJs, we have to acknowledge that
our schemes work best when we engage
the audience in narrative. When we give it
meaning, it transcends “texture” or “wallpaper” and becomes a more powerful part
of the whole.
So I actively search out the influences in
the world around me that can help me to
craft this context. This kind of influence (for
me) is best when I am sampling a very wide
range. The examples I give above are typical
of the sort of contextual rooting around I do
on a daily basis. The idea of exchanging art
between practitioners (like the graffiti artists) is fascinating, and the work they have
produced has influenced how I graphically
approached gigs like Nickelback’s recent
concert tour. The interview with Koolhaas
reveals that narrative is even communicated in structure; thus, media as scenery
can achieve the same effect. And finally,
Mathew Barney’s whacked interpretations
and reflections of popular culture reveal
that soul searching can result from looking
in the funhouse mirror. Any and all of this
might become a relevant starting point, or
reference, for a design I work on. And thus,
the tapestry becomes more complex, interesting, engaging…
If any of you have attended art school,
you know of that dreary exercise in the first
year known as art history. Probably a lot of
folks with a general liberal arts education
know it, too. It’s that fundamental course
that they make you take to fulfill the arts
“req.” For the art school crowd, it can be an
long fascination with the interplay of light
on scenery was of paramount concern to
him — how it drove him to sit in the same
location for complete days, for months, in
order to reflect it in pigment — can inform
all of us about what he spent so long figuring out. When’s the last time that you did
that? The last time you sat for a whole day
to witness the movement of natural light
across a landscape or piece of architecture? If you’re a busy professional out on
tour, or banging out corporate work all the
live-long day, maybe it’s not recently. But
by finding the time to see some of Monet’s
work and seeing those lessons manifested,
you can still find some of that value.
It’s not just art history, though. It can
be as simple as looking, really looking,
around you as you drive to work for instance, or roll into a new town on the bus.
The other day I noticed how the curved
truss supporting the roof of the Seattle
Seahawks’ Qwest field perfectly contains
the shape of Mt. Rainier looming in the
background at a particular place on the
highway. In the same place it also links
itself to the repeating curved shapes of
the Mariners’ Safeco Field, and also connects itself to the end of the lineup of
skyscrapers that spill from downtown. Is
all of that a design accident? I don’t think
so, and beyond being an architectural
whimsy that’s fun to see and think about,
it reminds me just how rigorous I should
be in finding those same opportunities in
my own designs. Modern art, like MaThew
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 10:08:27 PM
Byline: Bob Boniol
Barney’s stuff or the street art of those
graffiti practitioners, is just as expressive,
just as detailed, just as instructive.
Early in my career I read a great book
by an author named Julia Cameron. It was
called The Artist’s Way. It’s full of useful
suggestions and practices that a working artist can engage in to keep the font
flowing, keep the work productive and invigorating. One of the best practices was
to give yourself “artist’s dates.” Find the
time, and schedule it if necessary, to go do
some extracurricular thing that is going
to feed your inner artist. This can be many
different things. Maybe it’s rolling down
to the local bookstore, grabbing a latte
Another sampling of the graffiti art on Exchange
It became instantly sensible for us to find
a place in the show where the twin contexts of Frank’s own paintings and his
influence by Rothko could be expressed.
of Sinatra’s art. I loved this, and it became
instantly sensible for us to find a place
in the show where the twin contexts of
Frank’s own paintings and his influence by
Rothko could be expressed. That opportunity ended up being in the seminal tune,
“Learning the Blues.” The song was staged
to take place in a seedy blues bar. Frank
would be singing on one screen stage left,
while we would have to come up with “atmosphere” on a full stage RP screen that
would back the bar. We ended up creating
a small library of Rothko-esque (is that a
word?) shapes and color gradients, all in
the blue palette, which would come and
go, morphing subtly. We added in some
blues bar texture as well: cigarette smoke,
a stiletto shoe, feminine lips parting…
All blended to create a scenic backing. It
worked beautifully at a purely scenic level, but also as a real expression of Frank’s
explorations of blues music, blues culture
and the color blue through paintings. It
was way more than just great background;
it was linked and grounded by real influences and priorities in Sinatra’s life.
So go forth, I say, and find narrative
and context. Look for it in the heart of
your design, whether that’s a script, a lyric
or a bar of music. But also, take the time to
look for it in other directions. Break down
the limits of your view, and find something new.
and a good book on art, architecture, design or music, and doing some reading. It
might be finding a local museum, or, even
better, some local gallery shows featuring
the work of people you haven’t heard of,
and stopping by to see it. Or it could be as
simple as finding a unique vantage point
in the local landscape where you can see
the light of the sun moving across some
distant hills or buildings, and then watching carefully… Channeling Monet yet? You
should be.
The artist’s date is one great way, but
some of us can’t interrupt our working day
that way. If so, good for you, and boy am I
sorry. I do know what that’s like. But find a
way to seek the influences at work. Instead
of spending lunch browsing MySpace on
the Web, go check out the sites of some
working artists, or google 10 different
words that occur to you, and then hit the
“images” button to see what happens. Random influences can have extraordinary
surprises, and most of us find ourselves
online some part of the day.
Conversely, specific research on context is also good, and even enjoyable. This
year we designed the multimedia and
projection elements for Sinatra Live at the
London Palladium. It turns out that Frank
was a painter as well as being a world-class
crooner. We had been granted access to
all of Sinatra’s materials by his family, and
the estate, in order to do the show. When I
looked at Frank’s paintings, I saw a fascination with geometry and color graduations
that seemed familiar to me. It turned out
that Frank was a huge fan of Mark Rothko,
and that influence had shown up in some
Claude Monet’s Haystack
www.PLSN.com
100.0612.42.43.indd 43
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
43
12/1/06 6:15:15 PM
VIDEO WORLD
ByThomas.S Freeman
I
t’s a fair question: Do two doublestacked 5K projectors equal the brightness of one 10K projector?
The issue, it seems, has been a hot topic
among projection designers, but lately
it has become more prominent since the
proliferation of projection, double stacking and edge blending software. Last June,
when High End Systems debuted their
Collage Generator, which combines up to
eight DL.2 digital projectors and creates
one large edge-blended image, the question became even more complicated. What
is the equivalent brightness of four edgeblended 5K projectors?
The confusion about equivalent projections stems from two sources: first-hand
experience with double-stacked projectors
stacked projectors. Many are convinced
that one 10K projector is brighter than two
double-stacked 5K projectors. One of them
If what he says is true, and I have no reason
to doubt him, then how does that differ from
double-stacking two 5K projectors?
and the seeming complexity of the inverse
square law. I mean, even the nomenclature
sounds involved.
Some projection designers who have
experience with large venue projectors
are very used to using and seeing double-
is a good friend of mine, with whom I had
this conversation very recently. But when
I asked if he had ever compared the two
side-by-side, he admitted that he had not.
Without doing so, I believe it’s very difficult
to assess them. Still, he believes what he
believes. Fair enough.
I recently had the
good fortune to witness
a projector shootout
between three competing manufacturers,
all vying for the sale
of multiple projectors
in a large venue. One
of the projectors was a
Sony SRX-R110 projector, a 10K ANSI lumens
projector, which uses
two 2kW xenon lamps.
The idea is that if one
lamp goes down, you’ll
still be able to project a
usable image. The Sony
factory rep told me that
with only one lamp on,
the brightness is the
same as their 5K ANSI
lumens projector. He
illustrated this by first
44
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.0612.44.VWORLD.indd 44
turning on both lamps, and then dousing
one of them. It seemed very plausible to
me.
If what he says is true, and I have no
reason to doubt him, then how does that
differ from double-stacking two 5K projectors? I don’t believe it does. I think it’s
exactly the same scenario. I saw the difference between the two, and I would have to
say that it would be very difficult to gauge
the amount of difference between the two
images. Is it twice as bright? Or some other
multiple/fraction brighter? The only sure
way to tell is with a meter because your
eyes compensate by opening or closing
your irises. In a controlled environment
without a meter, it’s anybody’s guess.
What is for certain is the math behind it.
Now just hold on — before your eyes glaze
over and you lose interest, I promise not to
bore you with any formulas. We’ll just intuit
our way through this.
Suppose you have a projector that produces 100 nits at a throw of 25 feet. (A nit
is a measure of brightness equal to one
candela spread over one square meter. But
Let’s not concern ourselves with the details
of nits for the moment; let’s just accept
that it’s some measure of brightness.) If we
now measure the brightness at a throw of
50 feet — twice the original throw distance
— then how many nits would be expect to
see? That’s where the inverse square law
comes in. Since the throw distance has
doubled, we can figure that the projection
area is now four times bigger and brightness is one-fourth intense; therefore we
might expect to measure 25 nits.
We can now figure out what it would
take to piece together four images to recreate the same brightness as a single image
four times the original size. Think of the second projection — the one that’s four times
as big as the original — as four individual
images, each of which are 25 nits. Stitch
them together and the four would equal
the size and brightness of the single projector. Therefore, from a theoretical standpoint, all things being equal, four projectors
with X ANSI lumens is equal in brightness
to one projector with 4X ANSI lumens. Or,
in English, four 5K projectors have the same
punch as a single 20 ANSI lumen projector.
That’s true whether you quadruple-stack
them or edge blend them.
The same is true whether you’re talking about projectors or luminaires. After
all, a projector is a luminaire — a very specialized one, but a luminaire nonetheless.
In this era of convergence where lighting
people are learning video, and video people
are learning to live with lighting people, a
little confusion is understandable. Video
techs are used to dealing with ANSI lumens,
nits and aspect ratios, while lighting techs
are used to dealing with footcandles or lux,
candelas and beam or field angles. But the
principles are the same when you’re dealing
with light. With any given quantity, you can
spread it, stack it, spend it any way you want,
but you have to account for every bit, and
you can’t get something for nothing.
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 10:10:40 PM
PRODUCTGALLERY
By RichardCadena
T
his month’s Product Gallery could be
a metaphor for change in our industry. Less than 10 years ago, a small
display appeared at LDI in which only a few
luminaires were displayed on a countertop.
Those luminaires drew little interest, a few
snickers and lots of doubt. The company
was Color Kinetics and their product was an
RGB color mixing can with LEDs.
In just a few short years, the doubt
turned to debate about the viability of LEDs
in the entertainment industry while manufacturers increasingly turned out more and
more products using the now ubiquitous
solid-state devices. But despite their best
efforts, few manufacturers have succeeded
in producing LED fixtures for general illumination. They have, however, been very successful in turning out LED displays for direct
viewing — aided, in part, by the new generation of DMX-controllable media servers
that make it so fast and easy to create intricate graphics. So successful, in fact, that
most every entertainment lighting manufacturer now has some form of LED product
in their stable.
Keep in mind, this is in a category that
didn’t even exist a few years ago. Interestingly enough, the product that everyone
was talking about at LDI 2005 fit into this
category very nicely. Unfortunately, the
manufacturer, Komaden, was unable to deliver on its promise of a semi-transparent
LED display called I-Mesh. Fortunately, Element Labs was — or at least a reasonable
facsimile they call Stealth. But that’s just
one of the many lo-res displays on the market today.
What exactly is a lo-res LED display?
Excellent question. Hi-res displays have a
huge number of pixels and lo-res displays
have less. Also, lo-res displays tend to have
a larger pixel pitch, meaning the LEDs are
spaced farther apart. But what’s to keep
someone from putting together lots and
lots of “lo-res” displays with a very large
pixel pitch to form one huge display with
lots and lots of pixels and feeding it with
hi-definition content? Or, what’s to keep
someone from using an LED display with a
very small pixel pitch and feeding it lo-res
content? Absolutely nothing.
In a sense, “lo-res” is all in how you use it
— whether you feed it hi-definition images
(assuming it’s able to display it) or lo-res
graphic images to complement the other
staging elements. Either way, LED displays
are flexible, fun, and it looks like they’re
here to stay.
But just as the industry is constantly
changing, so are LEDs. What’s rare today
is plentiful tomorrow. What’s costly now is
reasonable tomorrow. What’s highly competitive today is... Okay, some things will
never change.
Here are some of today’s LED displays
that you might use for lo-res.
Artistic Licence Color Web
Robe StageQube 324
MainLight SoftLED
Daktronics Pro Pixel
Acclaim X Panel
Chauvet DV Wall
Martin LC2140
Pixel Range Pixel Line 1044
A.C. Lighting Chroma Q
www.PLSN.com
100.0612.45-47.PRODGALLERY.indd 45
Barco MiPix
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
45
12/1/06 6:28:30 PM
PRODUCTGALLERY
Manufacturer
Web Address
Product Name
Type of Source
Pixel Pitch
Substrate Material
Weight
Standard Size
Acclaim Lighting
X-Ball
RGB 42 LED Model- 18 red, 12
blue, 12 green. True RGB 21 LED
Model- 9 red, 6 blue, 6 green
Up to 40mm pitch
Die-cast construction glass diffuser
300g (42 LED) 295g
(21LED)
3.66" x 2.87" x 2"
X-Curtain
72 tri-color LEDs
2.4" (60mm)
PC + UV-resistant tubes
1.2 Kg
59.10" x 2.36" x 2.16"
X-Panel
25 tri-color LEDs
40mm
Polycarbonate
.08 Kg
7.87" x 7.87" x 1.46"
Chroma-Q™ Color Block
DB4
4 sets of tri-color LED
2.5"
Anodized aluminum
3.1lbs
10" x 2.5" x 4.75"
Chroma-Q™ Color Web
250
Tri-color surface mount LED
10"
Pliable webbing
1.76lbs
3.3' x 3.3'
Chroma-Q™ Color Web
125
5"
Pliable webbing
4.06lbs
3.3' x 3.3'
MiStrip
Data DVI up to UXGA, SDI, HDSDI, YUV, composite, S-video
13mm
LED
MiPix
MiPIX Control Unit. Up to 128
blocks per Control Unit (four
lines of 32 blocks). Connection
between Control Unit and blocks
by means of flat ribbon cable.
20mm
LED
34g
40.3mm x 40.3mm x 22mm (1.6" x 1.6" x .87")
MiSphere
S-Video, composite, YUV, RGB,
SDI, HDSDI, data DVI up to
SXGA
160mm
4 SMD LEDs (2x2 configuration)
MiSpheres are daisy chanined in a
string that is self supporting
142g
60mm x 103.5mm x 60mm (W x H x D)
Chauvet
www.chauvetlighting.com
DVmodule HR
Red, green, blue LEDs grouped
in clusters of nine.
256 LED clusters per module
31mm
28lbs/module (with
mounting hardware)
Dimensions/module: 19.75" x 19.75" x 4" (
501mm x 501mm x 101mm). Weight: 28lbs
(12.7kgs)
Daktronics.com
www.daktronics.com
ProPixel PXC-89
5mm RGB LEDs
89mm
Face: plastic in custom colors
0.5 lbs
73mm x 73mm
Stealth
Tri-color LED
25mm pixel pitch
Plastic
1.0 kg (2.2 lbs)
40cm panels
Cirrus
Tri-color LED
75mm pixel pitch
Vinyl
Approx. 50 lbs
2.44 m x 4.88 m (8' x 16')
2.4" x 2.4"
1.5 lbs per square foot
Modular frames that clip together to any size.
Each frame is 37"x37" (0.9m x 0.9m)
2" linear
N/A
Each tube can be any length up to 15'6" (6m).
Any number of tubes may be arranged vertically or horizontally to create any size display.
2.4"x2.4"
2.2 lbs/sf
Modular frames that clip together to any size.
Each frame is 37"x37" (0.9m x 0.9m)
Hi-Res (Square) - dim: 16'1" x 16'9" (5 m x 5.1
m); wt: 128 lbs. (58 kg); 2400 nodes
High Resolution - dims: 8'1" x 33'5"
(2.5 m x 10 m); wt: 128 lbs. (58 kg); 2400 nodes
Med X Res - dim: 16'1" x 33'5" (5 m 10 m); wt:
184 lbs. (84 kg); 2327 nodes
Med Res - dim: 16'1" x 33'5" (5 m x 10 m); wt:
111 lbs. (50 kg); 1200 nodes
www.acclaimlighting.com
A.C. Lighting
www.aclighting.com/northamerica
Artistic Licence (distributed by
A.C. Lighting)
www.aclighting.com/
northamerica
Barco
www.barco.com
Element Labs
www.elementlabs.com
Phantom Frame
G-LEC (distributed by Scharff
Weisberg)
www.scharffweisberg.com
Tube
Individual LEDs
Light Frame
SoftLED
Main Light Industries
www.mainlight.com
HardLED
Martin Professional
www.martin.com
Height - 26mm; Depth (w/o connector) 55mm; Length - 1500mm, 750mm, 380mm
High X: 2"x4"; High - 4"x4";
Medium X - 4"x8"; Medium - 8"x8"
Face: 22oz Encore IFR Liner:
Black IFR
Hi-Res: .5lbs/sf Medium X: .35lbs/sf Medium:
.21lbs/sf
Series 6000: 2"x2" Series
6100/6200: 1"x1"
Frame material: aluminum extrusion; Face: hard phenolic covered
with black/synthetic fabric
Series 6000: 56lbs Series
6100: 32lbs Series 6200:
28lbs
LC 2140
5mm oval LEDs, 1800cd/m2
40mm
44lbs
2m x 1m (39.4"x78.7") 25 x 50 resolution, 1250
pixels
Pixel Art
Osram tri-color thin-film SMT
LEDs
15mm (30mm to follow)
Batten: 4.5lbs Block:
0.75lbs
Batten: 42.5" x 3.6" x 2.76" (1080mm x 91mm
x 70mm) - 72 x 6 pixels. Block: 7.09" x 3.6" x
2.76" (180mm x 91mm x 70mm) - 12 x 6 pixels
Pixel Line 1044
1044 high intensity red, green
and blue LEDs
6-12mm
110 high intensity Luxeon
emitters: 1W Reds & Ambers,
3W Blues and Greens
21.5mm
1179mm(L) x 84mm(H) x 165mm(D)
Metal framing
55.1lbs (25kg)
800mm x 800mm x 120mm (31.5"x31.5"x4.7");
800mm x 800mm x 180mm with diffusor
(31.5"x31.5"x7")
Pixel Range
www.pixelrange.com
Inc
1179mm(L) x 84mm(H) x 165mm(D)
12.2kg (27lbs) w/ combi
yoke; 11kg (24lbs) w/o
No
Robe
www.robeamerica.com
StageQube 324
Red, green and blue LEDs
18x18 pixels w/ 4.44cm
pixel pitch
Staging Dimensions
www.stagingdimensionsinc.
com
High Resolution Pixel
Panel
nodes
4" x 4"
4' x 4' x 3/4" clear or milk plexiglas,
extruded aluminum frame, nylock
nuts, dual locks
4' x 4' panel / 105 lbs
4' x 4' x 3 3/4"h stage panel
Studio Due (distributed by
Techni-Lux)
www.studiodue.it
www.techni-lux.com
RGB CityLED/C Modular
LED Spot
42 single color LEDs; 18 red, 12
blue, 12 green
13.78" x 9.85"
Aluminum case
0.525 kg (1.16 lbs)
10cm x 9cm x 5cm (3.9" x 3.5" x 2")
TMB
www.tmb.com
ColourPix - Low-Res
Modular
Red, green, blue 5mm LED's
1", 2",4"and 6"as standard
with other pitch options
available
Carbon steel with powder coating,
and optional digital printing on
vinyl film for the background
Varies depending on type
of housing required.
Custom configuration for various sizes - call
TMB
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
Pow
PC board
Pixel Line 110
46
5-wa
24 VD
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 10:15:12 PM
or) 0mm
x .87")
D)
Power Supply Size/Weight
Control Options
Accessories
Retail Price
Comments
4" x 6" x 8" / 3 lbs
DMX or X-Soft
XB-R1 Remote Controller
$120 (42 LED)$85 (21
LED)
IP 67 for exterior use or submerge to 1 meter. Produces up to 16 million colors.
4" x 6" x 8" / 3 lbs
DMX or X-Image
$200
IP 65. Up to 16 million colors- 24-bit color.
4" x 6" x 8" / 3 lbs
X-Soft
$250
25 RGB LEDs.
$845
Modular "building block" design enables individual or connected use for a variety
of configurations (battens, blinders, footlights, side fills, cyc, floods, truss toners,
discreet set piece lighting and interior architectural applications). Available in a
range of color, mounting, optical and power supply options.
$654
Panels clip together or joined over distances, enabling them to be re-configured
to fit almost any height, length or shape. Each 3'-3" square panel provides 16
individually addressable color mixing LED cells with a pitch of 10".
$2,600
64 individually addressable color mixing LED cells with a pitch of 5" with double
the resolution per square foot compared to Color Web 250.
5-way: 14.1" x 7.3" x 2.6" / 5lbs 30-way: 19" x 14.5" x 3.5" /
24.5lbs
DMX512
10-way: 4" x 8.6" x 4.3" / 3lbs
DMX512A, (480 channels), XLR 5-pin in
and through
10-way: 4" x 8.6" x 4.3" / 3lbs
DMX512A, (480 channels), XLR 5-pin in
and through
D-sub 25
D-320
1.2 w/block (max)
206 w/system (1CU + 128 blocks)
D-320
$8840
(200 pieces)
3 w/block (max)
D-320
$7748
(64 pieces)
x 4" (
28lbs
ny size.
m)
Yoke attachment,
batten bracket, blinder
frame, 1-way & 5-way
LED pipes, set of 4
pixel caps, hinge kit,
wall bracket, single link
cable, various beam kits
Control software, circuit
extensions, multicore
extensions, spider, fly
adapters, IP65 end cap
$3680 - $6720
(8 Pieces)
Rental Structure
DVwall Studio or ShowXpress Timeline
Additional DVwall
drivers to expand
the overall size; flying
hardware
4 modules min + case/
$7999.99
Varies
Daktronics Venus 7000 controller
Varies based upon configuration
Video (DVI & SDI)
Optional Rigging Accessories
$1,700/panel
Varies based upon configuration
Video (DVI)
Optional Rigging Accessories
$30,000/panel
Power supply is remote from frames to keep weight low.
Phantom I: own graphics computer with
graphics storage and NTSC video input
Phantom II: DVI input
IP65 ingress protection rating, video, Flash, Powerpoint, graphics displays, 50,000100,000 hrs average LED life, sold in minimum of four modules.
POA
Snap-fit frame system and very light weight designed for touring. Very large systems, indoor or outdoor. Transparent to light and air (e.g. wind, smoke, etc.).
For rental only
" (6m).
vertidisplay.
ny size.
m)
Own graphics computer with graphics
storage and video input. 3D multilayered
graphics control.
Can be fitted on any surface or hung at any length up to 15'5". Can be bent to 4'
radius.
$4,940 per frame with
volume discounts
Quick-fit frame system and very light weight designed for touring. Indoor or
outdoor. Transparent to light, and air (e.g. wind, smoke, etc.)
Tubes and control box can be de-mounted from frame and used in scenery or
separately on custom surface.
Mounting hardware,
calibration system
$20,795
2 x 1 meter semi-transparent LED wall of light with RGB color illumination with
color calibration capability. Suitable for TV studios (genlock). Runs via standard
DVI in/output with daisy chain capability.
Master Controller: takes either DVI or
RGB analog video or Artnet, maps to Ethernet-based protocol. Master supplied
with multiple port options. Entry level is
one protected port capable of driving up
to 120000 pixels. (703 equivalent DMX
universes)
Mounting kits, PSU/
Ethernet repeater with
mapped DMX outputs,
range of filters
POA
External source (DMX) and Stand alone
Yoke, Holographic
filters,Power Jumper
Cables
$6,250
External source (DMX) and Stand alone
Yoke, Holographic
filters,Power Jumper
Cables
$6,525
VGA and Ethernet connectors
Adaptors for rigging
systems
POA
Integral rigging system allows construction of large systems. With optional foot
plate, the system is self-sustaining and it can also be flown.
$3,308.50 clear
$3,055.00 milk
Complete staging panels which will support 150 lbs per square foot and require
no sub-floor. Structural, portable light surfaces can be custom built.
POA
IP 67 rated. It can be used in matrixes or individual confirgurations.
POA
Modules are weather proof for permanent outdoor installation, allows for multiple
design layouts to accommodate unique structures such as curved, triangular etc.
Module housings can also be specified as interlocking sections for touring applications to provide quick and easy setup.
Power supply integral in frame
DMX512 input, RDM, LED control modes:
1-, 4-, 16-squares of pixels and each
individual of 16 tubes
Included in frame, no additonal equipment necessary
DVI, genlock
Included in Batten; not yet available for Block
m x 5.1
s
x 33'5"
nodes
m); wt:
m); wt:
n, 1250
91mm
3.6" x
6 pixels
D)
Internal
D)
"x4.7");
usor
)
Built-in
8.8" x 5.5" x 3.6" / 6 lbs
24 VDC: 1 unit can supply 32 CityLed/19cm x 11cm x 5cm
(7.5" x 4.3" x 2")
0.725 Kg.
Diamond plate ramps,
Pre-programmed, DMX or Ethernet; VLSE,
guardrails, stair units,
Catalyst or DMX lighting console
stage legs from 4" - 100"
high, stage skirting
DMX or Studio Due software + X Board/C
CF controller (pre-programmed color
patterns) and DVI controller (live DVI
signal input)
or integration w/ media server
s - call
Modular horizontal
and vertical bars with
fast lock
www.PLSN.com
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
47
11/30/06 10:17:42 PM
n Poem
oductio
r
P
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When
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:
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“Happ
Illustrations by Tony Gleeson
100.0612.20.poem.indd 48
12/1/06 12:08:12 AM
PRODUCTSPOTLIGHT
Flying Cars
and Wybron’s InfoTrace
By RichardCadena
InfoGate is the software running on
a computer, which is networked to a
Gateway IT box through an off-the-shelf
network router. It provides a graphical
user interface in the form of a spreadsheet whereby you can view and change
a variety of information about the devices and system, including variable pa-
rameters such
as intensity, focus, color, sensors,
labels and functions.
One of the views shows
a DMX map with a graphical
representation of each DMX device and
its footprint (how many channels it uses).
Dragging and dropping the device to a
new location on the screen can change
the DMX starting address, and if there are
overlapping DMX addresses, they show
up on the screen in red. Many more functions are available in the application.
InfoStore is an Internet application that allows you to check in with,
monitor and manage any number of
InfoTrace systems. As InfoGate gathers
information about the operation of the
system, including such data as voltage,
temperature (provided the device has
the appropriate sensors), fan speed, etc.,
it can send reports back to the webbased InfoStore site. You can set alarms
to monitor certain parts of the system
that might be of concern, such as lamp
hours and gel string hours. Wybron’s
own Coloram, CXI, Eclipse and Eclipse
II have built-in sensors to monitor the
presence of light, the temperature, voltage, fan speed and gel string frame color
information. They can send information
about the current status of these items
and warn of potential problems.
All of these components work together
to gather, transmit and store information
about each device on a system. It provides
an end-to-end solution
for legacy DMX devices
as well as for systems
that are yet to be built.
The number of useable
functions will continue
to grow as manufacturers find new ways to use
the technology.
In the future, robots
will perform system
checks and maintenance. Right now, we
humans have to do it.
What makes the InfoTrace system appealing is that it can help
make your life easier by
speeding the process of
setting up a lighting rig,
configuring or re-configuring it, and maintaining it. How many
t i m e s
have you
flown a
rig only
to
disc o v e r
that you
forgot to
set the
DMX address
on
one of the devices? Be honest.
Or how many times
have you noticed a dim
lamp in an automated luminaire and wondered if it’s aligned correctly or if it’s just an
old lamp? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to
consult your laptop and find out before you
decide your next course of action? Sure it
would. And it would also be great to take a
flying car to your next gig.
Ironically enough, just a couple of months
ago there was an article in Popular Science
magazine about an MIT aeronautical graduate student who designed a flying car called
the Transition. He and a team of engineers
are building a prototype, and they hope to
be flying by 2010.
When asked about how his invention
compares to the flying cars in the Jetsons cartoon, Carl Dietrich, the inventor, said, “We try
to steer away from The Jetsons. It’s a step in
that direction, but a baby step.”
InfoTrace is more than just a baby step.
It’s a full-sized step towards the future of automated control. In just a few short years it
will be soaring.
www.PLSN.com
100.0612.59.PSPOT.indd 49
W
hen I was a young kid, I told my
older brother that I wanted a
’69 Mustang fastback when I
was old enough to drive. “When you’re
old enough to drive,” he said, “we’ll
have flying cars!”
My sixteenth birthday came and
went, but not a single flying car did I
ever see. Still, that became
my benchmark for the future: When cars could fly,
the future was here.
Now Wybron has introduced a new product
called InfoTrace that promises to usher in the future
of control systems for the
entertainment industry. It
is not so much of a “flying
car ” as it is a mechanism to
allow the flight of cars, except in this case, the “cars”
are packets of information
passed between controllers
and devices in a networked
system.
Before the approval of
Remote Device
Management, or
RDM, there was
no bi-directional
communication standard for
control systems. Last
summer, the Controls
Protocol Working Group of ESTA finished
pushing RDM through the approval process, paving the way for manufacturers
like Wybron to develop products that
take advantage of the bi-directional protocol for the control and management
of DMX-controlled devices. But instead
of building the firmware into their own
products and stopping there, Wybron
smartly chose to offer it as an after-market and/or OEM product that anyone
could adapt to their own equipment.
InfoTrace is a complete system that
includes InfoChip, InfoGate and InfoStore. InfoChip is a small package with
two tiny printed circuit boards about the
size of your thumbnail. It has an eightpin configuration, and it’s designed to
plug into a standard DMX transceiver
socket, so it’s easy for just about anyone to install in any DMX device. It communicates back to InfoGate, a package
of software running on a computer, to
facilitate several “flying car-type” functions. It automatically participates in a
discovery process whereby the device
reports to InfoGate what device it is and
where it resides on the network. It also
collects and reports information about
the duty cycle of the device, and it allows the operator to remotely change
the DMX address from the controller,
which is even a lot faster than a flying
car. But wait, there’s more.
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
49
11/30/06 10:25:17 PM
FEEDINGTHEMACHINES
Test Time
at the
Trade Shows
O
ur industry has recently had two of
its biggest tradeshows: PLASA and
LDI. Lighting tradeshows are like a
giant candy store for automated lighting
programming kids as well as conventional
lighting geeks. Not only can you see what
new goodies all the manufacturers have developed, but you can also learn about existing products and make incredible contacts.
While I was at these shows, I realized there
is a great learning opportunity available
to attendees with no additional monetary
cost on their part. While paid programming
seminars are often available at these shows,
there is plenty to learn at each of the console
manufacturers’ booths.
Seeing What’s New
))
Of course, every tradeshow provides a
great venue to see what each manufacturer
has to offer. You can simply walk around and
look at consoles and fixtures to see what
looks nice or appears bright. Often, many
people will be talking about the new console
from Company A, or the new moving head
from Company B. It is very easy to walk into
most booths, take a look, put a brochure in
your bag, and move on yet by doing so, you
are not really learning anything about the
products. What is even better is to sit down
for a demo or ask for a walk-through of the
product. I have been attending these shows
for many, many years, and there have been
periods where huge demonstrations were in
vogue. However, the current trend seems to
be small, intimate, hands-on demos.
When you want to learn about a new
console, you will find that most manufacturers set up kiosks with consoles and visualizers. At these kiosks you can either work on
your own with the console, or, hopefully, a
representative will assist you. In some cases
1/2 JR. VERTICAL AD
Ad info: http:www.plsn.com/instant-info
50
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
200.0612.50.FEED.indd 50
By BradSchiller
a manufacturer representative may give a was looking at one desk, no other attendstandard demo or sales talk; you just stand ees were around the booth, so I was able
and listen.
to spend a
The most Most manufacturers unchain good 30 to
important
45 minutes
thing
is
on the conthe developers from their
to ask for
sole with
a
demo cubes and allow them to meet the develspecific to
oper. This
your queswas
very
the users at tradeshows.
tions. Every
useful —
user is different, and if you ask the demon- enough that I think I could do a gig with
strator to explain patching, unique func- it if I truly had to.
tions, or effects, then they will be happy to
tailor the demo to your needs. However, if
Q Did you find enough time to really
you just ask to see what the desk can do, do learn a console? Or were you just able to
not be surprised when they simply provide get an overview?
a cursory overview.
A I don’t think a trade show is a place to
One of the greatest little-known facts really learn a console, unless you take a forabout console demonstrations at a trade- mal class. I was able to get a very good overshow is that the people working the kiosks view of the desks. At both stands, everything
are often the software developers. Most from patching to changing fixture types was
manufacturers unchain the developers from shown: building cues, editing cues and timing.
their cubes and allow them to meet the users If more time was allowed, we could have gone
at tradeshows. This provides valuable feed- more in depth. I do know that I now want to
back for the developers, and also offers you learn more about both consoles, and have
the opportunity to meet the brains behind already started playing with one of the PC
the consoles. Once you understand who is versions I picked up at LDI. So it can be very
demonstrating the console, then you can be- useful to gain understanding, but it is not a
gin to ask important questions and request substitute for proper training.
additional information. Very rarely do I see
If you ever get the chance to go attend a
sales people working the demonstrations at trade show, I would highly recommend it. Not
tradeshows, and that is a very good thing.
only is it a great place to meet and catch up with
people, but it also allows you to see the tools
An Attendee’s Point of View ))
that are available in our industry. Where else
After LDI, I spoke with Michael Graham of could you spend 30 minutes on six different
Austin, Texas. Michael is a freelance program- consoles in one day and still make happy hour?
mer, and he attended the show to learn about
the various consoles on the market. He want- Meeting Other People ))
ed to be better prepared for any future gigs
As Michael pointed out, one of the other
that may have consoles other than those he huge benefits to attending a tradeshow is
already understands.
meeting others in our industry. At LDI I saw
the majority of the major programmers and
Q Did you find attending the tradeshow
designers in our field. I made it a point to
useful for improving your programming
speak with each of them and find out what
knowledge?
they have been up to, what they are using,
A Michael Graham: Yes. As a programmer, I etc. One friend of mine spotted a famous LD
tend to stay on the consoles I know, and the (identified by his badge) and shouted out his
last place I want to learn a new desk from name. He introduced himself as an admirer,
scratch is on a gig. With so many different and it led to a 29-minute conversation. You,
choices today, a tradeshow is the best place too, should make it a point to look for industo see everything. You get to spend some try names and talk to all that you find. You
time on each desk and talk to people who never know what you will learn or what gigs
know the product and can truly answer your may come from the conversation.
questions. And in most cases, everyone has a
PC version — so after spending some time Tackling the Tradeshow ))
in a demo, you can pick up a copy of the PC
Our major tradeshows only happen once
version for free. Then you can take that home a year. If you can attend at least one every few
to spend some time learning more about the years and learn about new products, then you
desk before you use it.
will be ahead of many others. These shows provide a great resource of equipment and people
Q Did you have to ask for a demo? Or
in a single building. When at the show, make it
did you walk up on an active one? Or
a point to learn as much as possible and try not
were you approached by someone workto just walk around in a daze. If you ask, most
ing the booth?
manufacturers offer free exhibit-only passes,
A I walked around in the morning and so the learning experience is nearly free. (You
found which consoles I wanted to learn just have to pay travel and meal expenses.)
more about. Then I walked up and asked Prepare now for next year’s shows, and plan to
for a demo on one desk, and my friend learn all you can while at the show.
asked for a demo on another desk. I did
not attend any group demos, but when I Contact Brad at [email protected].
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 11:14:07 PM
THEBIZ
istribution
ynamics
By DanDaley
M
A Price-Driven Landscape Shapes the Relationships
oney changes everything. Declining
Eric Bernstein, owner of Intelligent Light- Between Manufacturer, Distributor, Dealer and User
pricing for mainstream professional
lighting products is accelerating a
condition that has been part of the distribution channel for decades, one in which the
once-distinct lines between manufacturer,
distributor, retailer and end user become less
clear as each one jockeys for best position.
Most lighting manufacturers use the traditional distribution model whereby they
make the equipment and sell it to a dealer
network, which then resells the products to
end users. The typical dealer is an installer
or theatrical supply house that either stocks
inventory for resale or provides value-added
services and sells the gear as part of their
service.
Production companies that also resell
equipment, however, can blur the lines between the dealer and end user, because they
use the equipment in their own productions,
and the vast majority of gear they buy is for
their own use. They sometimes have counter
sales, but that’s not where they derive most
of their income. Products that would have
been purchased with some kind of retail
markup instead are acquired at direct prices,
bypassing the retail channel. Some would
say that that ultimately undermines the entire industry pricing infrastructure.
ing Services, a dealer and service provider in
Austin, says he is seeing more manufacturers’
reps at trade shows and events that have traditionally been the purview of end users.
Bernstein uses the burgeoning church
market as a model for what’s happened. “The
church market for lighting now is like the
way things were in the early days of computers: intelligent lighting is more than a
plug-and-play device, and it needs expertise
to operate properly,” he explains. “Going to
Guitar Center to buy advanced lighting isn’t
in the best interests of the customer, really.
The qualified dealer is going to provide the
value-added services, and the qualified installer is going to provide the quality installation and support. You lose that when the
traditional distribution channels break down
over pricing. All that does is further depress
pricing, and you’re in a vicious cycle.”
Bernstein says he feels squeezed the
same way the independent hardware stores
were when big-box chains like Home Depot
and Lowe’s expanded. “Best Buy wants the
sports bar business, and they can offer in
terms of price what the smaller dealers can’t.
I have a local bar that wanted 40 42-inch
plasmas. Best Buy could offer a better price
as well as financing. I can’t compete with
“Intelligent lighting is more than a
plug-and-play device, and it needs
expertise to operate properly,” – Eric Bernstein
that. It’s no different than when a manufacturer goes directly to a club. More than the
price is undermined — the manufacturer
is used to dealing with maybe 100 dealers
in the U.S., and now, suddenly, they have
a thousand in the form of clubs and other
customers they have to support.”
Companies like Guitar Center, which
through its subsidiary Guitar Center Pro has
extended the value proposition into the territory of pro audio, video and lighting dealers, are large continents in the changing
tectonics of retail in general. They’ve aimed
themselves at the entry levels of markets
like performing musicians, but the power of
a vertical sales organization will be pretty
graphically illustrated when they start approaching more traditional pro lighting markets like theatres.
Expect the manufacturer-dealer-user
channel to continue to evolve, with more
than a little pressure coming from the kind
of pricing pressure paradigm brought on
by the big-box retail trend, propelled further by the increasing amount of lighting
being made in China. The equation in this
kind of situation has always been the tradeoff between price and customer service.
Time will tell which way the pole is going
to lean.
E-mail Dan at [email protected]
www.PLSN.com
100.0612.51 biz.indd 51
Some dealers think they should be able
to solicit production companies’ business,
and they consider direct sales by the manufacturer to be in violation of the spirit of
their dealer network. Some manufacturers,
though, will counter that production companies are not end users, per se, and that they
should be able to sell to them because they
promote their products by using them in
high-profile shows and events.
The issue isn’t so much that this is taking place and that it is a bone of contention
— it’s always gone on, and it’s always caused
some friction. What has changed is how increasingly pervasive it’s become. “Everyone
is more aware of it now because the competition is as fierce as it is,” says Jack Kelly,
president of distributor/manufacturer Group
One, which owns the Elektralite brand of intelligent lights and controllers. Referring to
the widely read business book Competitive
Advantage, by Michael Porter, Kelly quotes, “
‘Any industry is only as strong as its weakest
competitor.’ If there are 25 makers of moving lights and a huge project comes up, the
project in an environment like this is going
to follow pricing. Like the airline industry,
lighting has become commoditized, and any
time you make a technology product a commodity, you are rewarded according to how
inexpensive, not necessarily how good, you
can make it.”
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
51
11/30/06 11:38:58 PM
TECHNOPOLIS
Controlknobs
Broomsticks
E
very once in a while, I’m asked to
visit another school or community
theatre, usually to try to figure out
what’s wrong with their lighting system.
So I’ve seen a lot of archaic systems,
including the classic dimmer rack controlled with a broomstick (the originator of, “ Take it down by half,” usually
likely be implemented first, perhaps, in
your larger installations, then… who
knows?
ACN is the new Architecture for Control Networks protocol developed over
the last few years by ESTA. (Everyone I’ve
spoken to calls it the “Advanced Control
Network,” but that moniker was super-
controllers with ACN-ready fixtures so
that a designer can be “put back into
the world they are comfortable in,” according to western regional sales manager of EDI Tracy Underhill, who is also
the co-chair of ESTA’s Control Protocol
Working Group.
How? Well, it’s magic. Actually, it’s
a robust, expandable
system that allows
communication in both
directions between the
controller(s) and the
ACN-compliant components. Imagine a unit that tells the
control board exactly what it is and also
gives information on how to use it, and
you are on the right track. ACN uses
downstream and upstream messaging (over the aforementioned Ethernet
link) to sort of patch itself. The promise
of not assigning individual channels,
and not worrying about individual DMX
addresses is right there, too; high-end
boards can sort of do this already, but
ACN should make this feature universal,
and any company that cares to can jump
on the bandwagon by building ACNcompliant equipment.
Other features and components of
ACN include a very clever talkback system (the “leader” knows when to send
a signal that needn’t be acknowledged,
and when to send a signal that must be
acknowledged), a better error-detection system and improved interoperability between pieces of equipment
I suppose when DMXwas dreamed up, 512
possible channels seemed like plenty…
done with a broomstick across the dimmer handles). It seems that when any
improvement comes along, some poor
soul is stuck, whining, with a legacy
system. Sometimes I wonder how they
cope.
Soon, we may be whining about our
DMX-512-based systems and controllers. After all, it didn’t take long to max
out our first 512 channels, did it? Multiuniverse DMX control is now normal, the
trick of using one controller for moving
lights and another for the static units
is old hat. Add multi-media, effects and
LED displays, and the DMX-512 limitations can become true sticking points in
lighting design.
It seems like we need a controller to
control all of our controllers. Enter ACN,
the industry’s newest control protocol. It’s just been approved by the ANSI
Board of Standards Review and is now
the next level of control protocol. It will
seded somewhere along the way.) Entertainment equipment manufacturers
realize that an advanced system must
be made compatible across the industry
to survive in the marketplace. (It’s the
old Beta/VHS thing all over again.) So
they’ve banded together as an industry
to forge the ACN protocol, also called
the Multipurpose Network Control Protocol Suite.
ACN is an Ethernet-based ANSI standard that attempts to address (address,
get it?) some of the difficulties involved
with a complex installation. For instance, controlling a large LED curtain,
a complex media presentation, a gaggle
of moving lights, room lights and effects
is just about impossible for a single controller these days. OK, not impossible,
but, let’s say, awkward. What’s going to
happen when the installation or event
gets even larger?
ACN promises to connect ACN-ready
By JohnKaluta
from different manufacturers. Another
part of the protocol addresses the issue
of local control of any part of the system, allowing a sort of overarching control to mix with (or be superseded by) a
smaller control system placed wherever
it’s needed.
Just as drafting has moved to AutoCAD
and beyond, and just as graphic arts has
moved to PageMaker (and beyond), entertainment system control will very likely
move to ACN.
The idea, of course, is to use the existing
Ethernet base and parts of TCP/IP to allow
the analog world of designers to become
the digital world of controlled lights (and
sound, and fog, and haze, and anything else
we care to imagine). Using some of the existing TCP/IP protocols to carry the ACN data
builds in a compatibility that DMX doesn’t
have. DMX works by putting out 512 (8-bit)
codes every 1/44 of a second — essentially a
long, fast serial port. I suppose when it was
dreamed up, 512 possible channels seemed
like plenty, and 256 (theoretical, anyway)
levels of control was heaven for those of us
used to 0 to 99. But we all know that moving lights sucked up all the channels, and
the 0-255 thing didn’t always work as well
as could be hoped anyway.
ACN is different. Built “from the ground
up,” according to Underhill, ACN is open
ended and can control an unlimited number of channels. ETC’s new Eos console (one
of the first to offer ACN control) offers 8000
outputs. And, since the manufacturers aren’t
willing to cut off their nose to spite their
face, ACN-to-DMX converters are available.
You’ll lose a few features, but gain the use of
your existing DMX-controlled inventory.
One little sticking point is that ACN uses
regular old Ethernet wiring, which is great,
except Ethernet wiring has certain unbreakable limits. Take, for example, the limit of the
length of a cable run — 300 feet — which
could prove a little frustrating in implementation. The plan is to go to switches and fiber optics to beat that issue. The standard
of Internet compatibility is built into ACN,
which raises the concept of remote control
lighting design, which sounds like fun.
So, do you need to run out and buy
ACN-ready equipment for your next gig?
Probably not. For one thing, precious little
ACN-ready equipment is available today.
But the day may come when a visitor drops
by your place and says, “Oh, you have one
of these old-fashioned DMX rigs? How in
the world do you cope?”
Watch this space.
John Kaluta teaches Research & Experimentation and Robotics at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, MD,
and sponsors the Stage Crew there. He is
also the author of The Perfect Stage Crew
and The Compleat Technical Guide for
High School, College, and Community
Theatre, available at the PLSN Bookshelf. Email
him at [email protected].
52
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
100.0612.52.TECH.indd 52
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 11:16:05 PM
FOCUSONDESIGN
The Illusion
of Diffusion
By RichardCadena
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write,
but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” - Alvin Toffler
A
couple of months ago, I came face to
face with the realization that all I had
known to be true about diffusion was
little more than illusion. For several years I put
those little square pieces of plastic in front of
my luminaires to magically transform the subject by changing the quality of the light. But by
sheer accident I found it wasn’t changing it as
much as I thought.
I was recently commissioned to write an
instruction booklet about lighting design.
When the text was finished, I went about il-
in Austin where my friend David Poole is the
theatre tech director, and I borrowed their theatre to unlearn and relearn everything I could
about diffusion.
I essentially repeated my photography session with the basketball, one Source Four, and
a variety of diffusion. My sense was that the effectiveness of the diffusion was somehow related to where it was placed in the path of the
beam. I thought that by placing it further away
from the fixture it would be more effective.
Also, since my original pictures were shot in my
Diffusion scatters and softens light.
But the pictures didn’t bear that out.
small studio,
I was forced
to use a very
short throw.
This time I
would have
a much longer throw.
Instead of
simply placing the diffusion in front of the Source Four, I
varied the distance between the luminaire and
the diffusion by holding it in place.
I took over a hundred pictures, and this
www.PLSN.com
100.0612.5.fod.indd 53
the subject with many sources, is so popular in Hollywood — it approximates a linear
source. If the McCandless method with three
points of light is good, then the jewel method
with six or so points of light is excellent. Add
diffusion and it becomes pure magic.
What still confounds me is the tradeoff
between soft light and spill control. The
more scattered the light, the more difficult
it is to place it where it belongs and keep it
away from where it does not belong. And
the longer the throw, the more difficult a
problem it becomes. Someone cleverer
than I should invent a soft light with a very
long throw to use in applications where IMag is being used in conjunction with a
live audience. The presence of a live audience precludes the use of large soft boxes,
which can interfere with lines of sight, and
large Fresnels lack the control of a long
throw Leko.
Diffusion is a wonderful and necessary
tool for the lighting designer, but it has to be
used properly to get the right results. This little foray into the application of diffusion was a
great eye opener. When you’ve been working
on assumed knowledge for many years and
then you find out you weren’t quite on the
mark, it can shake the core of your existence.
And that can be a very good thing.
Don’t hide in the shadows. E-mail the author
at [email protected].
lustrating it, creating graphics and taking
pictures to illustrate certain points. When I
downloaded the pictures and saw them on
the computer, I realized the shots of diffusion
didn’t look like I expected.
I use diffusion for one primary reason: to
soften the light. Soft light makes soft shadows
and great pictures. It smoothes wrinkles and
renders age lines virtually invisible. Think of a
textured wall, like the ones in your house.When
it’s illuminated by focused, directional light, the
texture stands out and you can see every detail
in the wall. But with softer, more diffuse light,
the texture all but disappears. Diffusion scatters
and softens light. At least, that’s what I thought.
But the pictures I saw didn’t bear that out.
For my illustrations I used a basketball because it has a nice bumpy texture and an orange color. I carefully set up my camera on a
tripod and an ETC Source Four where I would
normally put my key light. I then took a series of
pictures starting with no diffusion and working
my way through every piece of diffusion material, from light to heavy, that I could put my
hands on. As I was placing the diffusion in the
fixture I could see the field widen — a telltale
sign that the diffusion is scattering the light.
When I finally looked at the pictures, much
to my surprise, I couldn’t tell the difference
between those with light diffusion and those
with medium to heavy diffusion. The shadow
of the basketball was clearly very sharply defined, unlike the soft shadows I was expecting.
And the dimples of the basketball were totally
visible in all the pictures. At best, I could only
see a slight difference between the pictures
with no diffusion and those with heavy diffusion. What went awry?
I scratched my head and then called somebody a lot smarter than me — Josh Allemany
of Rosco, whose last name, I think, translates
roughly to “Einstein” in Yiddish. I quizzed Josh
about their diffusion, and he was gracious
enough to send me a sample of every type
of diffusion material that Rosco makes. I then
took the sample pack to Westlake High School
time they came out differently. The shadows
were much softer in all the pictures, leading
me to believe that effectiveness of the diffusion is related to the throw distance; the
longer the throw, the more effective the diffusion. But the texture of the ball was still plainly
visible. Based on the outcome of the pictures,
I now believe that there are certain things
diffusion can do and certain things that it
cannot do.
Diffusion does:
•Spread the field; the heavier the diffusion
the more it spreads the field.
•Soften shadows; the longer the throw,
the more scattered the light and the softer the
shadows become.
•Decrease the intensity of the illumination; the
heavier the diffusion, the
greater the light loss.
On the other hand,
diffusion does not convert a point source, like
a Leko, to a linear source
like a Kinoflo.
It seems to me that
no matter how much diffusion you use in a point
source, it’s very difficult to
obscure textures and age lines. Linear sources
and very large sources, like a large diameter
Fresnel, do that best. Perhaps that’s why the
“jewel”method of lighting, where you surround
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
53
11/30/06 11:52:01 PM
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PLSN december 2006
100.0612.54.MP.indd 54
www.PLSN.com
11/30/06 11:18:37 PM
ADVERTISER’SINDEX
COMPANY
COMPANY
PG#RS# PH# URL
PG#RS# PH# URL
A.C.T Lighting, Inc.
5
818.707.0884
www.actlighting.com
MDG Fog Generators Limited
23
800.663.3020
www.mdgfog.com
AC Lighting
31
416.255.9494
www.aclighting.com/northamerica
Navigator
18
615.547.1895
www.hiretrack.com
All Access Staging & Prod.
16
310.784.2464
www.allaccessinc.com
Ocean Optics
35
727.545.0741
www.oceanoptics.com
American DJ
9
800.322.6337
www.americandj.com
Paradigm Production Services
52
954.933.9210
www.paradigmlighting.com
Angstrom Lighting
53
www.angstromlighting.com
PR Lighting LTD
29
253.395.9494
www.omnisistem.com
Applied Electronics
37
800.883.0008
www.appliednn.com
R&M Materials Handling
40
800.955.9967
www.rmhoist.cm
ARRI, Inc.
17
845.353.1400
www.arri.com
Robe America
2
954.615.9100
www.robeamerica.com
Atlanta Rigging
39
404.355.4370
www.atlantarigging.com
Roc-Off
12
877.978.2437
www.roc-off.com
Branam
3, 26
661.295.3300
www.branament.com
Scharff Weisberg
41
212.582.3860
www.swinyc.com
Bulbtronics
50
800.227.2852
www.bulbtronics.com
Screenworks
28
800.868.2898
Chauvet Lighting
15
800.762.1084
www.chauvetlighting.com
Sew What
31
866.444.2062
www.sewwhatinc.com
Checkers Industrial Prod.
19
800.438.9336
www.checkersindustrial.com
Staging Dimensions
21
866.591.3471
www.stagingdimensionsinc.com
City Theatrical Inc.
32
800.230.9497
www.citytheatrical.com
Strong Entertainment Lighting
38
800.262.5016
www.strong-lighting.com
Coast Wire & Plastic
Tech., Inc.
49
800.514.9473
www.coastwire.com
Techni-Lux
C2 - 1
407.857.8770
www.techni-lux.com
Cooling & Power Rentals
8
888.871.5503
TMB
19
818.899.8818
www.tmb.com
Creative Stage Lighting
12, 18
518.251.3302
Tribe Inc
10
310.452.8683
www.tribedesign.net
Delicate
27
Tyler Truss Systems
51
903.877.0300
www.tylertruss.com
Doug Fleenor Design
18
888.436.9512
www.dfd.com
Wybron
7
800.624.0146
www.wybron.com/plsn
Elation
C4
866.245.6726
www.elationlighting.com
Xtreme Structures & Fabrication
6
903.473.1100
www.xtremestructures.com
ESP Vision
19
702.492.6923
www.esp-vision.com
Full Sail
24
800.226.7625
www.fullsail.com
Hemphill Coaches
28
615.876.9000
www.hemphillbrothers.com
MARKET PLACE
High End Systems
43
512.836.2242
www.highend.com
City Theatrical Inc.
54
800.230.9497
www.citytheatrical.com
54
517.347.7844
www.dkcapitalinc.com
www.creativestagelighting.com
www.delicate.com
Infinite Designs
44
404.367.8070
www.infinitedesignsonline.com
DK Capital
Intelevent Systems
43
800.348.2486
www.intelevent.com
ELS
54
800.357.5444
www.elslights.com
Johnson Systems
14
403.287.8003
www.johnsonsystems.com
Hybrid Case
54
800.346.4638
www.discount-distributors.com
54
248.685.0102
Le Maitre
13
519.659.7972
www.lemaitrefx.com
Light Source Inc.
Leprecon/Cae Inc.
20
810.231.9373
www.leprecon.com
Lightronics
54
757.486.3588
www.lightronics.com/plsn
Light Source
4
803.547.4765
www.coolclamps.com
RC4
54
866.258.4577
www.theatrewireless.com
Roadshow
54
800.861.311
www.roadshowservices.com
TLS
54
866.254.7803
www.tlsinc.com
Upstaging
54
815.899.9888
www.upstaging.com
Lightronics
C3
757.486.3588
www.lightronics.com/plsn
Martin
C1, 11
954.858.1800
www.martinpro.com
CSI:Miami
continued from page 25
show. Still, I’d watch it with that cryogenic stuff. Anything else I should know
about that you’re keeping behind your
“privacy” glass?
Dino: There’s nothing in the direct line
of sight. Everything’s been mounted above.
We did that because we also have a threewatt multi-colored laser that has the ability to project on the screens in the frosted
state. We also use it in the clear state where
we get a refraction off the glass itself
while it also projects through that to the
outer walls.
CSI: Well, you couldn’t have pulled this
off by yourself, so you’d better start giving
us some names.
Dino: We brought in an external programmer, not only to program the DL.2s
and to use them to their full ability, but
also to train the lighting personnel on
how to get the most out of
these fixtures. His name
is Scott Chmielewski of Digital Media Designs.
There’s one primary technician and two alternates.
The primary technician is
Len Rove. He’s in charge.
He’s the man who maintains the fixtures, makes
sure they’re used to their
full ability, and makes
sure all the nights are
staffed with the proper
personnel to run the
lights. Right now, he
oversees two to three junior
lighting technicians.
Len works several of the larger clubs
in Miami, so he brought to the table the
ability to work with the other DJs because
he knows the music, which is a very important component of any lighting or visual
media technician.
CSI: You’re lying to me, Dino,
and I don’t like being lied to. How
could any one technician handle this
system himself?
Dino: It’s always been my philosophy
that total integration makes for a more provocative show. So if my light man — or my
light artist, or visual artist, now that they’ve
been promoted to higher and better things
— if he has the ability to stay in one place
and focus on what he’s doing, and sort of
control subsystems without taking his hands
off the board, I just think it makes for a better
light show, or video show now.
CSI: You’d better give me an example.
Dino: The DL.2s have the ability to use
their onboard cameras to output to other
projectors or other DL.2s.
Current DMX controllable video
switchers only go up to four-by-four matrices. We have eight fixtures, and we wanted
the ability to switch any image to any one
— in other words, a full eight-by-eight matrix switcher.
Crestron is very big in the automation
industry: home automation, commercial
automation, building management. We
had the ability to use one of their stock
pieces along with a processor that was going to be doing facility control like lighting, HVAC and stuff like that.
We got the Hog iPC lighting console
to talk to this processor and do the video
switching for the DL.2s, as well as control the privacy glass in the center of the
dance floor.
CSI: So after…where’s that name…
[mumble]…after Mr. Chmielewski pre-programmed the console, he apparently fled
the county. Do your “technicians” throw up
the same looks every night?
Dino: The glory of the DL.2 and the rig
we have is that new looks and new creations can be done on the fly, in real-time.
Len, of course, is the senior. The others
have the abilities to access the media files
and bring up certain looks.
They all become very creative in their
own way. Each of them has their own abilities and, of course, their own restrictions.
But the DL.2 is such an open palette that
no matter who is running the lights at any
given time, they just have this amazing and
incredible feel to them. Even though someone may do something differently to a certain DJ’s set, it’s something new and fresh
every time. You think, “Wow, I never really
thought of that.”
It’s always a joy to me, as a designer, to look at a lighting system or video
www.PLSN.com
system, and think to myself, “How did
he possibly do that? I never thought
of using the lights and the video in
that particular capacity.” But, somehow
they do it.
CSI: You think you’re pretty special,
huh? Just what do you think the people
outside this cell are saying?
Dino: We put a lot of detail into this nightclub. It wasn’t going to be “gut the room,
clean it up, throw up some lights and then
just run with it.” Besides the high tech
wow effect that they get, these are some
of the words that people have described
in seeing the club: clean, friendly, bright
atmosphere and “Some place that you’d
want to be.”
Several well-known club owners
and DJs down there have expressed
this to us.
With the DL.2s and the level of integration that we have, they’ve really never
seen anything like this anywhere else
in the world. And these are people who
have been to clubs, not only in the United
States, but overseas in the UK and Ibiza.
Well-known DJs have said there’s
nothing like this anywhere else in
the world.
CSI: Well, we can’t hold you on any of
this, but we’ll be watching you and your
nightclub. Do you have anything else to
say for yourself?
Dino: People told us “Nobody dances
anymore, just set up couches.”
Every night that they’re open, the dance
floor is the most crowded place in the
entire nightclub.
Phil Gilbert is a freelance lighting designer/programmer. He can be reached at
pgilbert@ plsn.com.
PLSN DECEMBER 2006
55
11/30/06 9:53:31 PM
LDATLARGE
By NookSchoenfeld
[In the last two columns, lighting designer Nook Schoenfeld
and a posse of LDs including Bob Peterson,
John
Featherstone
and Olivier Ilisca sat
down for lunch to discuss how they got into
the industr y and what
makes them successful. What we’ve learned
so far is that, of the
four designers, none
of them were formally
educated, but they all
recognize the value of
a good education. But
when it comes to work,
nothing can replace
experience and handson training. And, if you
really want to excel,
there’s one more ver y
important
ingredient. To find out what
that is, read this, the
last installment of the
three-part series, “Sushi in Chicago.”-ed.]
John: How about a
little passion? Show me
you’re into the gig. At
the auto show last year
I noticed one of my interns walking around
with a grin from earto-ear. He walked up to
me and just said “This
is so-o-o cool.” I love
that. That’s what I’m
looking for; someone
who really wants to be
there.
Nook: That’s so true.
You look for somebody
who just wants to do what we do. The
money’s not the reason; the art is.
COMING NEXT
MONTH...
•
Editor’s Picks
The Top 10
Products of 2006
•
Projection
Connection
The Top 10 Video
Tours of 2006
Anyone?
“I assumed everyone was in the
theatre for the same reason as me;
for the love of it.”
Olivier: In my early theatre days there
was no money. I assumed everyone was in
the theatre for the same reason as me: for
the love of it.
Nook: Perhaps that’s why we’re able
to make some good money these days.
John: Speaking of which, I’m still surprised that people are willing to pay me
for my services.
Nook: I know — that old adage about
protecting our phony-baloney jobs.
John: Exactly. Sooner or later somebody’s going to find us out and ask for their
money back!
Bob: And then the more you charge,
- Olivier Ilisca
the better they think you are.
Olivier: So true. But we will always
remember when we did the same job for
peanuts and the love of it all.
Bob: But to me...I love what I do. I
think I’m an incredibly lucky guy who’s
had some amazing breaks and worked
with fantastic people. I was for tunate
to get some breaks in the T V business
and learn enough to make a living out
of it.
John: The young people that resonate
with me are the people who demonstrate
excitement. Nowadays it seems to be so
cool to not be impressed with anything. It
makes me want to slap
the shit out of my 13year-old. [Rhetorically
speaking, of course! Do
not try this at home.
– ed.] I’m sorry, but
passion is a wonderful
energy source.
Nook: Absolutely.
I remember programming lights on a rock
show for the first time.
I couldn’t believe that
I was actually making money for something I loved so much.
I would’ve done it for
free if I knew I could
have gotten that high
of a feeling.
John: Don’t show
me a degree, show me
some excitement.
Nook: What other
advice do we have to
offer to youngsters
who want to pursue
this silly business
of ours?
Olivier: The only
way to move ahead, and
unfortunately we must
always move forward, is
that you cannot become
stale. You must grow
with the business.
Bob: Adapt. Each designer has his own style,
and you will find your
own in time. But one
must be able to adapt to
every different type of
gig. Theatre is different
from rock, which is different from TV. You can’t
use the same lighting
applications for these very different entities.
John: Be excited about your projects,
and your imagination will follow.
Bob: And what do you guys want to be
remembered for after you’re gone? Myself, I
get satisfaction when I see portraits of old
performers that are well lit, and know that I
lit them beautifully for that shot.
John: Inspiring someone young, much
as my mentors inspired me. If I can inspire
someone half as much as guys like Roy Bennett, John Huddleston and Norm Schwab
inspired me, that would be more than
enough.
Olivier: I want it to be known that I
loved light and life.
Nook: I’d like to be remembered as the
guy who gave a few young designers their
breaks in their careers, the guy who taught
and opened those doors for some talented
individuals to kick in.
E-mail Nook at [email protected].
www.PLSN.com
100.0612.56.LD.indd 56
12/1/06 3:42:09 PM
100.0612.ADS.indd 3
11/30/06 10:46:07 PM
100.0612.ADS.indd 4
11/30/06 10:46:33 PM

Spectacle of Lights

Transcription

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