Moon Bathed in Star and Laser Light

Transcription

N
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IO
T IO e
C T g
E C a
J E p
O N n
R N o
P O ts
C ar
t
Vol. 8.5
S
Blues and Greens on Golden Voices,
page 24
June 2007
PROJECTION, LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS
Chauvet and Color
Kinetics Enter Global
Licensing Agreement
On the Clock
and Off the Hook
HOLLYWOOD, FL —Chauvet has
entered into a licensing agreement
with Color Kinetics Incorporated,
giving Chauvet access to Color Kinetics’ complete worldwide patent
portfolio.
According to Chauvet CEO Albert Chauvet, the licensing agreement allows Chauvet to expand its
portfolio of LED-fitted products.
“Because we have invested heavily in LED technology, and because we
strongly believe that it is the way of
the future, we took a proactive stance
in approaching Color Kinetics and
seeking access to their patent portfolio,” he said.“We are thrilled that we
were able to come to an agreement
that will help us consolidate our
position as a continued on page 15
Rich & Famous at Ovation
You’ve got the gig, you’ve
got the gear list and you’ve only
got a week to get the club from
drywall to stunning. Any installer knows the score and preps as
much as they can to make use
of the precious time on site. For
this InfoComm issue, PLSN takes
you to clubland, and shows you
how they did it at two hot new
venues, 210 North (page 22) and
Ovation (page 26). As is the case
with any new install, both were
over the top and came down to
the wire.
Martin Profits
Continue to Track Up
LAS VEGAS — The N9NE Group, whose imprint can be found throughout the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, has
opened Moon, an exclusive penthouse nightclub loaded with high-end finishes, VIP accommodations and a
view not only of the Las Vegas Strip, but also of the stars above. The N9NE Group, founded by entrepreneurs Michael Morton and Scott DeGraff, operates several venues at the Palms: The Rain nightclub, the Ghostbar lounge,
a second N9NE Steakhouse and Stuff, a N9NE Group boutique. When Palms owner George Maloof decided to
embark on an ambitious $650 million expansion to his incredibly popular resort, he once again called on his
continued on page 7
imaginative collaborators.
Major Milestone for Creative Company
NORTH CREEK, NY — Creative Stage Lighting, which opened on May 2, 1977, in New Jersey, initially providing lighting expendables and production services, has just celebrated its 30th anniversary. Today, CSL is
located in upstate New York and is a leading wholesale distributor and production house in the stage and
theatrical lighting industry.
“It has truly been a joy to be involved in an industry that fosters passion and commitment,” said president
George B. Studnicky III. “Even after 30 years, it still feels like a hobby. Having the opportunity to learn and grow
continued on page 15
keeps this business exciting. I’m so pleased that fate has taken me down this path.”
ARHUS, DENMARK — Martin
Professional has continued the improvements the company experienced in 2006 into the first quarter
of 2007. Martin increased revenue
to DKK 274.5 million (approx. $49.9
million) in the first quarter of 2007,
a Q1 record for the company, from
DKK 227.5 million (approx. $41.4
nearly a 21% increase.
Revenue increases were prevalent across all of Martin’s key markets, with strong demand for both
established products such as MAC
2000s and newer products such as
the MAC 700 and MAC TW1. Profit
before tax for the first quarter of
2007 was DKK 9.1 million (approx.
$1.6 million), also a Q1 record, compared to a
Production Profile
36
54
55
Taste of Chaos goes fast and
cheap, but manages to keep it
under control.
Road Test
We take the LSC maXim console
to its max.
Technopolis
How to be the guy everyone asks
for pics of the show.
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JUNE 2007
www.plsn.com
P R O J E C T I O N , L I G H T S & S TA G I N G N E W S
W H AT ’ S H O T
Inside Theatre
Eugene Lee draws on his nautical background for the set of
The Pirate Queen.
CONTENTS
Features
Columns
22 Installations
48 Video World
The nightclub 210 North takes its
install to 11.
26 Installations
Ovation may be off the strip, but this
gear list takes it off the hook.
28 Production Profile
The Houston Livestock Show and
Rodeo digs in for 40 days of shows in
the dirt.
32 Product Gallery
We’ll run down the lasers you need to
give your club install that extra bling.
20
34 PLSN Interview
Production Profile
36 Production Profile
The Taste of Chaos fest keeps it fast,
cheap and under control.
Celtic Woman’s voices get bigger on a set that
can get smaller.
38 Vital Stats
We give you the exact details on
Precise Corporate Staging.
52 Road Test
The Rosco LitePad helps you get ready
for closeups in a whole new way.
50 Feeding the Machines
Sometimes you need to know more
than DMX to make the rig fly right.
53 The Biz
Trade shows and road shows chase
after your business.
60 LD-At-Large
Programming requires a steady hand
in the land of corporate revelers.
Departments
4 Editor’s Note
5 News
12 International News
14 On the Move
16 New Products
18 Showtime
41 Projection Connection
42 Projection Connection News
46 Projection Connection New
Products
54 Road Test
The LSC maXim console uses its colors
to help you look at yours.
24
W H AT ’ S H O T
We sit down with one of the youngest
lighting techs to work at the RSC.
Tracking the convergence of lighting
and video via NAB.
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EDITOR’S NOTE
B y R i c h a r dC a d e n a
The Publication of Record for the Lighting,
Staging and Projection Industries
Publisher
Terry Lowe
[email protected]
Editor
Richard Cadena
[email protected]
Editorial Director
Bill Evans
[email protected]
I
n the movie The Graduate, a family friend
offered Benjamin Braddock some career
advice at his graduation party.
“I want to say one word to you. Just one
word: plastics.”
If that film were made today instead of in
1967,the word might have been“fuel surcharge.”
Okay, that’s two words, but they’re two very
interesting words. The electric company uses
those words as a way of saying, “There’s been a
price increase, but it’s not our fault!”
Get used to seeing it.
The fuel surcharge is the handwriting on
the wall. According to Lieutenant Colonel
John M. Amidon, USAF, in his article “America’s
Strategic Imperative: A ‘Manhattan Project’
for Energy” (published August 31, 2005, by
Joint Forces Quarterly), a dwindling supply of
nonrenewable crude oil, increasingly difficult
access (much of the world’s oil supply comes
from politically volatile parts of the world
like the Middle East) and a steadily rising
demand all add up to trouble for energy
consumers.
But, with that trouble, also comes
opportunity for those who can help save
energy.
I know of a
project, for example,
where just such an
opportunity exists.
It’s a renovation
of a church where
three stained glass
windows are backlit with 190 1000-watt cyc
lights. It was originally designed and built in
the early 1970s and upgraded in the mid1980s. Back then, there were few alternatives
to the brute force of PARs, cyc lights and
lekos. Today it’s quite different. There’s an
abundance of new, more efficient lighting
products, and more are on the way. You only
need to keep up with technology to know
your options and figure out how and where
to use them.
In this renovation, the first solution was
to replace the cyc lights with fluorescents. I
know, I know
— they suck.
True,
they
used to, but
these
aren’t
your daddy’s
fixtures.
T o d a y ’ s
fluorescents have better color rendering,
they’re available in a variety of color
temperatures, and you can dim them to 1%.
Besides, they are being used to backlight
stained glass, not to frontlight a person. And
what we found was eye-opening. One 6-way
T5 troffer outputs about as much light as a
1000-watt cyc light. But here’s the kicker: It
uses a total of only 324 watts.
Now do the math. By replacing 109
1000-watt fixtures with 109 324-watt
fixtures, the energy consumption was cut
by 68 percent. That translates to dollars
saved. How much? With a conservative
estimate of 20 hours per week of use and
an electrical cost of $0.0986 per kilowatthour, in a year’s time, the building owner
will save more than $13,000.
But wait, there’s more. Every bit of
power saved — in this case, 128,440
watts — translates to HVAC savings. That’s
because all the electrical and light energy
is eventually turned into heat, which has
to be removed by the air conditioner. How
does that translate into cost savings? If
my math is correct, it saves about another
$26,000 on top of the initial $13,000 in
electrical savings. That’s a total savings of
about $39,000 per year.
Now take the rest of the lighting rig
— all 170 kW of it — replace it with higherefficiency 575-watt ERS fixtures, and there’s
a potential to save even more energy and
money. Last, there are about 150 1000-watt
FFN lamps in recessed ceiling cans for the
house lights. Replace them with equivalent
output 750-watt luminaires, and the total
return on energy savings could be as
much as $44,000 every year. And that’s not
counting the fuel surcharge.
There are other energy efficient
technologies that are just becoming
feasible, and some that are just on the
horizon. LEDs are an obvious energy saver.
Not so obvious is the High Efficiency
Incandescent (HEI) lamp technology that
GE is currently developing.
As the price of crude oil continues to rise,
the economics for conservation of energy
become even stronger. Sooner or later, we’ll
all have to design green stages.
That’s a total
savings of about
$39,000 per year.
Managing Editor
Jacob Coakley
[email protected]
Associate Editor
Geri Jeter
[email protected]
Contributing Writers
Vickie Claiborne, Phil Gilbert, Rob Ludwig,
Kevin M. Mitchell, Bryan Reesman, Brad
Schiller, Nook Schoenfeld, Paul J. Duryee
Photographer
Steve Jennings
Art Director
Garret Petrov
[email protected]
Graphic Designers
David Alan
[email protected]
Crystal Franklin
[email protected]
Josh Harris
[email protected]
National
Advertising Director
Gregory Gallardo
[email protected]
Account Manager
James Leasing
[email protected]
Production Manager
Linda Evans
[email protected]
General Manager
William Hamilton Vanyo
[email protected]
Executive Administrative
Assistant
Mindy LeFort
[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 08, Number 05 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, P.O. Box
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Number 40033037, 1415 Janette Ave., Windsor,
ON N8X 1Z1. Overseas subscriptions are available
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Editorial submissions are encouraged, but must
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Duplication, transmission by any method of
this publication is strictly prohibited without
permission of Projection, Lights & Staging News.
You can let Richard know how to save even
more money at [email protected].
ESTA
ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES &
TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION
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P R O J E C T I O N L I G H T S & S TA G I N G N E W S
Lamina Closes
$7 Million Round
of Financing
A.C.T Lighting Opens East Coast Branch
LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK — A.C.T
Lighting, an importer and distributor
of lighting products in North America,
has opened an office on the East Coast.
Dubbed A.C.T Lighting East, the 8100
square-foot Hackensack, New Jersey,
space will be managed by A.C.T Lighting
East’s General Manger, Brian Dowd.
A.C.T Lighting East will be a complete
stocking facility for all of A.C.T Lighting’s
key product lines including grandMA,
MDG and Zero 88. In addition, they will
offer console training, technical service
capabilities and custom cable assembly,
while housing a large stock of common
cables.
Dowd, who joined A.C.T Lighting in
June 2006, has been handling customer relations and business development
on the East Coast since he joined
the company.
“A.C.T Lighting East will do everything that A.C.T Lighting does on the
West Coast, “ says Dowd. “The launch of
this new shop is about a commitment
to service and support of our East Coast
customers. It will allow us to provide
regional product training and support
backed by inventory and cable assembly. I am very excited about the team we
are building and the opportunities that
lay ahead.”
“The East Coast office offers that region the service it needs,” echoes A.C.T
Lighting President and CEO Bob Gordon. We have a top-notch staff, and I’m
thrilled about this expansion. In addition
to offering regular grandMA classes, we
will have a full stock of everything our
customers have come to expect from
A.C.T Lighting.”
The address and contact information
for A.C.T Lighting East are:
A.C.T Lighting East
122 John Street
Hackensack, NJ 07601
Tel: 201.996.0884
Fax: 201.996.0811
WESTAMPTON, NJ — Lamina, an LED
developer, has raised $7 million in a
series D round of financing to expand
company operations. Easton Capital Investment Group led the round, while
current investors Morgenthaler Ventures, Granite Global Ventures, RedShift
Ventures and CID Equity Capital also
participated.
Proceeds from the financing also will
be used to move the company into its
next stage of development and support
the expansion of the worldwide marketing and sales plan for its growing product portfolio.
Lamina also announced that Charles B.
Hughes, a managing director of Easton
Capital, has joined the company’s board
of directors.
Founded in 2001, Lamina develops
and manufactures high power LED light
engines. Lamina has a proprietary packaging technology designed to provide
excellent thermal management and interconnectivity.
Lamina recently introduced its TitanTurbo™ line in two models that deliver more than 2,000 lumens in daylight
white and more than 1,000 lumens in
warm white light. The company demonstrated both products in Milan, Italy,
at Euroluce, a lighting show. TitanTurbo
debuted in the U.S. at LightFair.
NEWS
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6/1/07 7:42:10 AM
NEWS
Nexxus Lighting to Acquire Advanced Lighting Systems
ORLANDO, FL — Nexxus Lighting Inc., a
manufacturer of lighting technology, including solid-state LED and fiber optic lighting
systems and controls used in commercial,
architectural, signage, swimming pool and retail lighting, has signed a nonbinding letter of
intent to acquire Advanced Lighting Systems
Inc., a solid-state LED and fiber optic lighting
technology firm based in Sauk Center, Minn.
The transaction is scheduled to close on or
before July 31, 2007, subject to satisfactory
completion of a due diligence review, approval of Nexxus’ board of directors and other
customary closing conditions.
“Advanced Lighting Systems is an excellent strategic fit with Nexxus Lighting, not
only in terms of LED lighting/fiber optic prod-
ucts, but also with respect to technology and
market coverage,” stated Mike Bauer, pesident
and CEO of Nexxus Lighting.“They have an excellent team of people, and our strategy is to
provide ALS the infrastructure and resources
to help them flourish as a brand and accelerate new product development. Paul Streitz,
the president of Advanced Lighting Systems,
brings over 15 years of experience working
with LED and fiber optic lighting technology.
He understands and believes in our vision
and how to effectively implement that vision
at ALS. Paul is expected to become a significant part of the team driving Nexxus Lighting
to gain market share,” added Mr. Bauer.
“All of us at Advanced Lighting Systems
are very excited about becoming a part of
the Nexxus Lighting team,” stated Paul Streitz. “We believe that this is the time for
companies like ours to consolidate in order to grow market share. As part of the
Nexxus Lighting organization, we hope to
increase the rate of new product development and quickly bring new ALS product
designs to market.”
The plan calls for ALS to remain at its current location and maintain its brand identity
under the Nexxus Lighting corporate umbrella. Mr. Streitz will remain as president
of ALS, reporting to Mr. Bauer. He will be
working closely with the Nexxus Lighting
executive team and board of directors on
executing the company’s strategic vision to
connect advanced technology with light.
InfoComm,
NXTcomm
Events to
Co-Locate in
2008
LAS VEGAS — Executives from InfoComm International and NXTcomm plan
to co-locate their tradeshows and conferences, InfoComm and NXTcomm, in 2008
with the intention of co-locating future
events. The events will be held in the Las
Vegas Convention Center. The shows will
be marketed both jointly and independently.
InfoComm is the tradeshow serving
the audiovisual and information communications industries. InfoComm will
occupy the North and Central Halls of the
Las Vegas Convention Center in 2008 and
2010.
NXTcomm, which will occupy the
South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention
Center in 2008, is dedicated to meeting
the needs of the business and technology
of communications, information and entertainment. The inaugural NXTcomm will
be held June 18 – 21, 2007, in Chicago.
Giving attendees of InfoComm and
NXTcomm the ability to visit both show
floors and engage in valuable training
is expected to provide a more robust
tradeshow experience.
“The long-predicted convergence between the worlds of audiovisual, IT, communications and entertainment technologies has occurred, and this co-location
provides an ideal opportunity for both
shows’ exhibitors and attendees,” said
Randal A. Lemke, Ph.D., executive director, InfoComm International.
IATSE,
ColossoVision
Sign Canadian
Agreement
NEW YORK — IATSE has entered into an
agreement with ColossoVision Canada to provide supplementary crew support across the
entire country for ColossoVision’s live event
productions, exhibit and display services. The
agreement brings the potential to offer work to
hundreds of IA members across Canada.
The agreement, which was negotiated by
IA International vice-president Damian Petti
and cofounders of ColossoVision Andy Soltesz
and Vicki Pierce, is a major breakthrough for
Canadian IA members. The terms of the oneyear agreement call for ColossoVision to employ
IA members through individual locals in their
respective jurisdictions when the company has
live events in their areas.
ColossoVision offers production consultation, live video production services, content
creation, web streaming and large video LED
screens for events across Canada.
IA president Thomas C. Short stated, “The
IATSE is committed to representing workers in
all facets of the entertainment industry in Canada and the United States, and this agreement
represents an important achievement. Our ability to obtain national and international agreements is enhanced when the international
works in conjunction with our local unions.”
Said ColossoVision cofounder Soltesz, “We
now have an alliance of professional resource
personnel across Canada who we can call anytime, which will save our clients money.”
6
PLSN JUNE 2007
www.PLSN.com
NEWS
Pedestrian Bridge Gets Wireless DMX
LITTLE ROCK, AR — Wireless Solution
Sweden AB and Illumivision, Inc. recently
turned the Murray Lock and Dam Bridge in
Little Rock, Ark., into a tourist attraction. The
newly constructed pedestrian and bicycle
bridge over Murray Lock and Dam, dubbed
the “Big Dam Bridge,” recently held a special
ceremony to show off its new look, bejeweled
with colored lights.
The bridge, which spans the Arkansas
River, is 4,226 feet long and was designed and
built to be the world’s longest pedestrian and
bicycle bridge. Construction was completed
in August 2006. The addition of lights was
completed a few months later and is expected to make an icon of the structure.
Illumivision, Inc. worked in conjunction
with Lighting Designer John Rogers of John
Rogers Design in Little Rock, Ark. during the
design and installation of the bridge lighting.
A total of 169 Illumivision Light Wave LX fixtures are installed at the base of the 13 piers
across the span of the dam. The fixture is an
IP66-rated wall-washing LED that generates
color-changing effects.
The challenge was to provide DMX to 13
piers along the span of the bridge. The only
practical solution was to use Wireless DMX.
Pogany explained, “There was no question
about choosing W-DMX by Wireless Solution
for this install. It had to have an IP65 rating
and operate without any interference.”
One W-DMX transmitter with 100-foot
antenna cable, RF booster and a 14 dBi an-
tenna sent signal to 13 WDMX receivers with 26-foot
antenna cables and a 2dBi
antenna installed on every
pier, each with a receiving
antenna that feeds to an enclosure with 24 VDC power
supplies and 3-output DMX
splitters. The distance is 300
feet from the transmitter to
the first pier antenna, and 70
feet between each pier.
Pogany said, “Since the
moment the lights turned
The Murray Lock and Dam Bridge
on at the opening ceremony, the system has performed flawlessly, and ing makes the bridge a spectacular sight and
everyone is thrilled with the results. The light- a special attraction for the city of Little Rock.”
Aluminum Poles Used on “Iron” Tour
Keane on stage in Toronto
TORONTO — Keane embarked on the
North American leg of their tour to support
their album Under The Iron Sea. LD Rob Sinclair has been lighting the shows using a
Jands Vista console.
Rob commented: “I absolutely adore the
console. It’s made my life so much easier
and more productive, and makes me look
like a much better LD than I really am.”
For this tour, Rob’s brief from the band
was to make the stage look as cluttered as
possible and give it a sense of space and
depth. Rob worked with video designer
Kevin Godley, who came up with the concept of a forest of aluminium vertical poles
with light shining through it to give the set
a very 3D perspective.
The rig for the U.S. leg was supplied
by Chicago-based Upstaging Inc. and is
a scaled-down version of the European
arena show. Featuring MAC 700 spot and
wash moving lights along with a mixture
of Airstar balloons, conventional fixtures
and Atomic Strobes, the rig also includes
a Kinesys motor control system using custom Pantographs specially built for the
tour by Blackburn-based HSL Group.
There is also a strong video element in
Rob’s design, which consists of a mixture
of abstract images and live close-up feeds
from four remote cameras. Three Catalyst media servers supplied by U.K.-based
Scenographic provide the custom video
content, which was made for the tour by
Rob and Tom Palliser from Whitehouse Pictures.
As with previous Keane tours, the Vista
consoles were supplied by U.K.-based Lite
Alternative, who Rob has worked with for
many years. A.C. Lighting is the exclusive
North American, European and Middle East
distributor for the Jands Vista range.
The design of Adam
Wuertz (technical director) was to have
guests immediately notice that they have arrived at a dramatic, surreal environment.
Moon occupies the very top floor of the
Palms’new Fantasy Tower.The floor is covered
with shimmering glass tiles of various shapes
and sizes, which change color via a computerized lighting system as guests move about
them. A curtain of glass beads, upon which
videos are projected, hang over the floor-toceiling windows that give the 12,500-square
foot club views of the Las Vegas Strip.
The Club’s main room boasts a retractable roof that opens up to provide a view of
the stars. When closed, the ceiling serves as
a large projection screen, onto which laser
graphics are projected. The roof retracts accompanied by theatrical music and a laser
and fog show.
Laser Design Productions Inc. performed
the laser install. Special effects designer
Doug Adams assisted with the Laser install.
The laser design includes one 3.5 watt
water cooled white light laser coupled with
a 24 position laser projector custom made
by Laser Design Productions. This system creates multi-colored patterns and atmospheric
effects as well as graphic imagery. The white
light laser extends to two fiber-fed remote
scanners to create additional laser effects.
Additional laser system includes two, 3watt air-cooled YAG lasers with two custom
made LDP 11 position laser projectors. These
systems create multiple beam patterns,
atmospherics and a 180 degree Machida
look. Four custom designed linear actuators
enable vertical positioning of the fiber fed
remote scanners. These units are remotely
controlled and allow for the scan designs to
be manipulated vertically. Wuertz was adamant about having a live hands-on feel for
control of the laser and the effects. Lasers
Design programmers were able to accommodate this through Pangolin’s Live Pro software and Midi control surfaces.
www.PLSN.com
continued from cover
2007 JUNE PLSN
7
NEWS
More Draft Standards Available for Public Review
NEW YORK — ESTA’s Technical Standards
Program has posted two draft standards on
the Web site for public review until June 15,
2007. The draft standards are: BSR E1.35-200x,
Standard for Lens Quality Measurements for
Pattern Projecting Luminaires Intended for
Entertainment Use; and BSR E1.36-200x, Model
Procedure for Permitting the Use of TungstenHalogen Incandescent Lamps and Stage and
Studio Luminaires in Vendor Exhibit Booths in
Convention and Trade Show Exhibition Halls.
BSR E1.35-200x, Standard for Lens Quality Measurements for Pattern Projecting Luminaires Intended for Entertainment Use,
describes a method for measuring stage and
studio luminaire lens quality with particular
emphasis on contrast and perceived image
quality (sharpness). It also offers a way for presenting these results on a datasheet in a format
that is readily understood by a typical end-user
and that allows the end-user to directly compare lenses in a meaningful way.
BSR E1.36-200x, Model Procedure for
Permitting the Use of Tungsten-Halogen
Incandescent Lamps and Stage and Studio
Luminaires in Vendor Exhibit Booths in Convention and Trade Show Exhibition Halls, is
a model set of procedures that can be used
by convention center and trade show exhibition hall staff to mitigate the risks perceived
to be associated with the use of tungstenhalogen lamps and stage and studio luminaires in convention centers and trade show
exhibition halls and to allow their use. There
is no evidence that tungsten-halogen lamps
used in Listed luminaires or that Listed stage
and studio luminaires present any greater
risk as they are used in exhibition halls than
any other light source or type of luminaire
in those venues, but the management staff
of at least one major convention center in
the United States believes that these tungsten-halogen lamps do have elevated risks.
They have moved to prohibit or limit the use
of this equipment by exhibitors, but the restrictions are inconsistently enforced, largely
because there is no clear procedure to decide when their use is acceptable or not. This
draft standard offers a model procedure to
permit or not the use of tungsten-halogen
lamps and stage and studio luminaires and
helps promote the use of the lamps and luminaires in a safe manner.
In addition to being asked to review the
documents to see if they offer adequate and
correct advice, reviewers are asked to look
for protected intellectual property in the
draft standards. ESTA does not warrant that
its standards contain no protected intellectual property, but it also does not intend to
adopt any standard that requires the use of
protected intellectual property, unless that
property is necessary for technical reasons
and can be licensed and used by anyone
without prejudice or preference for a reasonable fee. Any protected intellectual property
in the document should be pointed out in
the public review comments.
Mickey Curbishley
in at PRG
Day and Night Lighting
on Disney Games
Lighting Challenge in the Tundra
NEW WINDSOR,
NY — Production
Resource
Group
L.L.C. has named
Mickey Curbishley
senior vice president
of its concert touring
group. He will work
out of PRG’s offices
in Greenford, United
Kingdom, and Los Mickey Curbishley
Angeles.
Curbishley most recently served as director of sales at the Greenford location, where he
oversaw business development and client support for concert tours and special events.
He began his career as a lighting technician
for concert headliners, including Elton John,
Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, George Harrison, Frank
Sinatra, Judas Priest and AC/DC. He later managed the London office of Light and Sound Design (LSD), which was acquired in 1998 by PRG.
“Mickey has an immense amount of experience and know-how, as well as a great commitment to customer service,” says Jere Harris,
chairman and founder of PRG. “As our market
continues to expand throughout the world, he
is precisely the right person in the right job at
the right time.”
HOLLYWOOD, CA — Design Partner’s
lighting designer Lee Rose provided the
lighting design for the Disney Channel
Games opening and closing ceremonies. The
red carpet kick-off party and live concerts
featured some of Disney Channel’s music and
were taped in Florida at Disney World’s Wild
World of Sports baseball stadium.
“The challenge was fitting the band, staging, lighting and scenery on a 40-foot by 40-foot
stage,” explains Lee. “The producers wanted
a realistic concert look with lights and trusses
visible.” Lee used vertical trusses topped with
Martin Mac 2000 automated lights, strobes and
a hanging rig with Martin Mac 2000 automated
lights and strobes. There were eight white and
four multicolored spandex sails used on the
stage as a production design element, which
Lee lit with Vari*Lite 2402 automated wash
lights. As there were both daytime and night
time concerts, accommodations for the different lighting levels were needed. For the daytime show, 12 kW and 18 kW HMI fixtures were
used from the bleachers in the stadium to add
fill light to the performers’ faces. These fixtures
were then gelled blue and used to light the
audience for the night performances.
Lee used Showviz LiteLab to visualize and
preprogram the nighttime performances.
FA I R B A N K S ,
AK — Lighting
designer Mark
Casadei faced a
unique challenge
when he set out
to light the World
Ice Art Championships, an annual
ice sculpture competition drawing
top artists from
around the world An ice sculpture from the contest
to the subzero
tundra of Alaska. Casedei selected the LEDfitted COLORado 3 wash light as the event’s
main lighting source. The choice paid off
handsomely, he says, bringing new life and dimension to an event that dates back to 1989.
“The use of LED lighting in ice sculpting is truly the way of the future,” Casadei
says. “It is amazing how well the ice takes
the color!”
This year’s most visible project is a tribute to one of Alaska’s most famous women,
fallen dog sledder and four-time Iditarod
Dog Sled Race Champion, Susan Butcher.
Artisans from six countries carved massive
ice blocks over a two-week period to com-
8
PLSN JUNE 2007
www.PLSN.com
plete the tribute.
using 5 COLORado 3 fixtures,
Casadei backlit a wall of ice
into a seamless,
slowly fading
and pulsing curtain of color. He
also employed
two units to
highlight the
sculpture from
the front, and
smaller chauvet COLORsplash 196 LED
cans to light Butcher and her sled.
Vincent Lighting
Mourns John Rankin
CLEVELAND
— The staff
of Vincent
Lighting
mourns the
loss of John
Rankin, a
friend and
colleague,
who died in
a tragic car
accident on
John Rankin
the evening
of May 9, 2007.
John made his way to Vincent Lighting after earning a BFA from North Carolina School of the Arts and serving with
regional theatre companies, including the
Youngstown Playhouse and Playhouse on
the Square in Memphis, Tenn. John was with
Vincent Lighting for 14 years as Senior Project Manager. His keen analytical mind and
attention to detail allowed him to design
and manage the installation of many theatrical lighting control systems in the Great
Lakes region.
John was a kind, compassionate and
thoughtful individual who was always willing to lend a hand or his heart. His compassionate spirit was not limited to human
beings, and he often volunteered and
donated to Rainbow Connection Animal
Foundation, a local animal rescue shelter.
Even in death, he chose to benefit others by
donating his organs. John is survived by his
father and stepmother, Wallace and Glenna
Sue Rankin, sisters Mary Cutter, Margaret
Gatchell, Patty Childs and Julie Sullens, as
well as 12 nephews and nieces.
NEWS
Player’s Ball Gets Serious About Lighting
CHARLOTTE, NC — The Player’s Ball
in Charlote, N.C., hosted by national
recording artist Calvin Richardson and
Vintage Productions, used LEDs, moving lights and other special effects from
American DJ and Elation Professional.
The LD was Jack Kelly of Eye Dialogue
Lighting and Sound (Charlotte, N.C.).
EVENT
CALENDAR
To highlight the VIP entrance, four
American DJ H2O 250 water-ripplelike effects were used, set in red to accent the building’s brick wall. Inside the
VIP area, the entertainment was made
the focal point with six Elation moving
lights positioned at 3 feet, 5 feet and 7
feet in staggering steps on either side
of the DJ booth. To further direct attention to the DJ booth, two fabric stretches
were placed above it, indirectly reflecting light onto the disc jockey. Four additional H2O 250s illuminated the room’s
four gray stone walls with a watery blue
light. Opposite the entrance, a projector
displayed a logo for Vintage Productions,
the event’s producer,
onto a square fabric
stretch, providing a
professional “finish” to
the lighting décor.
The General Admission tent had a
staircase leading up
to the entrance, which
was dramatically lit up
with American DJ MR
RGB E27 high-power
LED color-changing
lamps, operated with
a proprietary wireless
remote.
A showpiece at the Player’s Ball
2007 Rigging Seminars
Chicago
July 9th–12th
www.riggingseminars.com
Designing Shading Solutions—FL
www.lutron.com
July 12–13
Plantation, FL
Designing Lighting Control for Residential Spaces: Designers & Architects
— PA
www.lutron.com
July 30–31
Coopersburg, PA
InfoComm
June 19–21
Anaheim, Ca.
www.infocommshow.org
MARTIN TRAINING
Basic Training for Intelligent Lighting
Austin Training Facility, Austin, TX
July 23 – 26, 2007
E-mail [email protected].
Jem Fog and Haze Effect Machine
Technical Class
July 12 – 13, 2007
August 30 – 31, 2007
Maxxyz Training
June 21 – 22, 2007
E-mail [email protected]
Maxedia Media Server Training
June 19 – 20, 2007
For more info on all these events, visit
www.martin.com.
Vari-Lite Roadshow
Nashville, TN — June 14–15
Chicago, IL — June 21–22
www.PLSN.com
2007 JUNE PLSN
9
NEWS
Rock Legends Get Texas-Sized Lighting Rig
KNOXVILLE, TN — Bandit Lites is again
working with legendary American blues
rock band, ZZ Top. Still composed of its
original members, ZZ Top was inducted
into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame on March
15, 2004. Their 2007 tour features greatest
hits from their 37-year (and counting) career.
Lighting Designer Chris Stuba collaborated with ZZ Top’s manager, Rick Canny,
tour manager Pablo Gamboa, production
manager Donny Stewart and Bandit vice
president Michael Golden, to ensure that
the design coordinated with the band’s
image as well as the music itself.
Stuba chose Martin MAC 2000 washes,
Vari*Lite VL3000 spots, VL1000 AI, PixelRange Pixelines, Color Kinetics Color Blasts
and I-Colors, Martin Atomic Strobes and
IN BRIEF
Preparations for the 4th annual
Long Reach Long Rider Charity Motorcycle ride, July 29 – August 6, 2007,
have begun. This year’s even will start
in Philadelphia and run through New
York and New England, stopping in
Syracuse, Ottawa, Middlebury, St. Johnsbury, Bar Harbor, Bangor, White River
Junction, and Lakeville, Conn. There are
PAR 64s to
light this show.
Lighting is
controlled by a
grandMA and
a grandMA lite
for backup. XL
Video is supplying the Soft
LED Drape and
interface.
“The preproduction of
this tour began while I was
ZZ Top
out as the LD
for Bob Seger,
so on my days off, I designed the ZZ Top
tour on WYSIWYG,” explained Stuba. “Troy
17 riders to date as well as chase drivers and support staff. The Long Reach
is a charity ride. As in the past, the ride
benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights
Aids and the ESTA Foundation’s Behind
The Scenes program. Interested parties
can donate online or mail in a donation. All of the donation information,
including how to sponsor a rider, is
available on the Web site: www.lrlr.org.
. . All three Entertainment Technician
Eckerman
programmed
the show on
ESP. Troy is
simply the
best there is,
I have worked
on and off
with him for
years, and he
is amazing
at what he
does.”
S t u b a
has been the
band’s lighting designer
for many years. He said that in that time
he has gotten used to certain color palCertification Program examinations
will be given as paper and pencil exams at the LDI 2007 show in Orlando,
Fla. The entertainment electrician exam
is scheduled for Friday, November 16;
the arena rigging exam is to be given
the morning of Saturday, November 17,
and the theatre rigging exam is scheduled for that afternoon. Candidates
who wish to take multiple exams will
receive a discount for the second exam.
lets and cueing so it was nice having Troy
come in and give a fresh feel.
“I tried to not give Troy too much input,
I just let him do whatever he felt, and the
results are really fantastic,” commented
Stuba.
For the band’s key light, Stuba is using
VL1000s, a little trick Bob Peterson showed
him. He said he especially likes the field
on those fixtures. Stuba is also using more
LEDs this time out.
Crew for this tour includes crew chief/
assistant lighting director Jeff Archibeque,
programmers Troy Eckerman and Brad
Schiller, lighting technician Bobby “D”
Dominguez and rigger Mark “Smokey” Kohorn; lighting technicians Kenneth “Bubba”
Moore and Andrew Heid were also present
for a portion of the tour.
Interested applicants must submit their
application, along with supporting materials and fee, postmarked no later
than October 1, 2007. . . Wybron, Inc.
announced that it has secured three installations of its InfoTrace Control and
Management System. The system has
been installed in Manhattan Theatre
Club, Royal Caribbean’s newest ship
Liberty of the Seas and the permanent
installation of Spamalot in Las Vegas.
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5/30/07 11:11:14 PM
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Teen Idol Demands the Bling with His Lights
LONDON — Lighting designer and operator Nick Whitehouse is using an Avolites
Diamond 4 Vision console on Justin Timberlake’s acclaimed Future Sex/Love world tour,
currently playing its U.K. and European legs.
Whitehouse and his colleague Bryan Leitch of
the U.K.-based lighting design practice Visual
Light were invited to design the show after
Timberlake saw their work on Coldplay’s 2005
world tour.
The D4 is controlling 76 Vari*Lite 3000
Spots, 32 Vari*Lite 3000 Washes, eight Vari*Lite
1000 AS fixtures, 34 Vari*Lite 4s, 50 Atomic
strobes and scrollers, 50 Molefeys, eight
MX1000 Syncrolights, 12 MX3000 Syncro-
lights, 120 Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 truss
toners and a series of LED strips illuminating
the four bars inbuilt into the stage set. It is all
being run via Ethernet — from the desk right
through the fixtures, using lighting contractor PRG’s Series 400 mains/data distribution
system. The Avo team wrote customized software to enable the D4 to talk to the Series 400
system — the first time they have been used
with one another.
The shape of the lighting rig is based on
over a kilometer of curved trussing custommade by L.A.-based Show Rig. It was designed
around six moving screens that fly in and out
to different positions constantly throughout
the show — a high-octane
fusion of live performance,
lighting and video — and
mirrors the geometry of
the stage below. The lights
are dotted all across the
overhead trusses and are
recessed into the stage set
and floor.
Steve Warren says, “Obviously it’s great to be working
with Nick again on another
high-caliber artist and a really original and inventive
looking show.”
Justin Timberlake in concert
Wireless DMX Spans the English Channel
DOVER, ENGLAND and CAP GRIS NEZ,
FRANCE — U.K.-based wireless specialists
dAFTdATA, Belgium-based Luminex, manufacturers of Art-Net products, leading U.K.
rental company Essential Lighting and French
equipment distributor Sonoss, all joined forces
to send the first “eDMX” wireless DMX signals
across the Channel from France to England.
The link-up took place on March 15 between Cap Gris Nez, west of Calais in France,
and the famous White Cliffs of Dover in the U.K.
The distance covered was, according to GPS,
20.82 miles (33.49 kilometers) — believed to
be the world’s longest ever wireless DMX signal transmission to date.
The experiment germinated from a meeting between dAFTdATA and Luminex at LSI’s
wireless “shootout” in 2006.
Discussions ensued which resulted in
them working together to produce systems
that talked to each other. dAFTdATA’s Chris
Crockford and Fabrice Gosnet from Sonoss,
Luminex’s French distributors, then started
thinking about various ranges of equipment
and maximum distances — and the Entente
Cordiale project (ECP) was born — an Anglo
French experiment to prove that DMX could
be beamed internationally across the channel
between different manufacturer’s equipment.
dAFTdATA are the only radio DMX manufacturer currently offering a 5.4 GHz system
that can run dual frequency. Using both 5.4
GHz and 2.4 GHZ frequencies, which operate
on completely different microwave bands, this
provides a fully redundant fail safe system.
The system has been developed in association with Essential Lighting to provide them
with a wireless eDMX rental stock to cover every eventuality, indoors, outdoors, across the
English Channel, even covering 2100 feet up
the face of a mountain in Scotland.
dAFTdATA approached the U.K. authorities
regarding the legality of the event, and Spike
Hughes, manager of Dover’s Rescue Co-ordination Centre (Coastguard) gave permission
for the Project to use the Coastguard Station at
Dover as the signal reception point. This is very
near the site of the first England-France radio
transmission by Marconi in 1899.
As the searchlights were fired up, the
Coastguard broadcast to all shipping in the
Channel that the searchlights would be shining out over the channel and changing color.
Essential Lighting — which holds a vast
rental stock of dAFTdATA eDMX — supplied
two 7K BigLites that were positioned on top
of the cliffs in Dover, along with the Avolites
Pearl lighting console on the French side, used
to control one of them. Sonoss supplied all the
Luminex encoding gear, and dAFTdATA all the
radio transmission and reception kit.
The receiver in Dover was located on top
of a World War II gun battery, approximately
300 feet above sea level, overlooking the ferry
port. The signal went from the Avolites Pearl
to a Luminex Art-Net box to a dAFTdATA 5.4
GHz wireless transmitter. This beamed it over
the Channel to the dAFTdATA 5.4 GHz wireless
receiver in Dover, then to the dAFTdATA ArtNet decoder which then fed DMX to the two
searchlights. The exact frequency used was
5.47GHz, which Crockford and Gosnet checked
was compatible with both French and U.K. outdoor wireless 802.11A transmissions.
The Wireless DMX receiver in Dover
Manufacturer Goes Deep in TV
CWMBRAN, U.K. — Zero 88 Lighting has
been making inroads into the TV production
industry. Zero 88 distributor Flashlight continues to supply a range of Zero 88 control
products to numerous production companies
nationwide. The largest is 3 Sixty Media, the
company formed through the merge of BBC,
Yorkshire Television and Granada Television.
Granada’s main facility features four studios that have been used for high-profile productions such as Stars in Their Eyes; and three
further studios for the long-running soap
Coronation Street.
Provision is the TV and Camera rental division of Granada, providing all OB facilities for
3 Sixty Media. Based in Leeds at Yorkshire TV
studio’s, current shows being serviced include
Heartbeat and The Chase, which are both controlled on their own Illusion 500 with dimming being provided by Betapacks. Future
productions will include Cold Blood, Blue Murder and The Street.
Located at the heart of Manchester,
is Urbis, an exhibition center focusing on
city life. Urbis is home to Channel M, a TV
12
PLSN JUNE 2007
www.PLSN.com
channel dedicated to Manchester. It features
news, sport and entertainment programs
such as the Franck Sidebottom’s Proper Telly
Show.
The channel produces a schedule of
over 20 programs, many of these going
out live with minimal preproduction time.
Dimming is handled by the Betapack 3
range. Richard Goodaire, lighting and camera technician at Channel M, is testing a
Fat Frog to run the newly acquired moving
lights used on their music and late-night
shows.
Ragdoll Productions, based in
Stratford-upon-Avon, has made use of its
37 Betapacks to provide dimming for programs such as Boohbah, shot in their studios
in Timothy’s Bridge Road and their first HD
children’s production In the Night Garden.
In Scotland, Scottish TV has two Illusion
500 consoles. Recommended by Phil Haldane from blacklight, these units were purchased and are run by Joe Malcolm. One
console runs their nightly News Roundup
and another controls the studio lighting
for the Setanta Football Channel.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Eurovision 2007 Lights the “Cobra”
HELSINKI, FINLAND — Over 500 Robe
moving lights were used on the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, which culminated in a finale, staged at the Hartwall Arena, Helsinki, won
by Serbia’s Marija Šerifović with “Molitva.”
This year’s lighting was designed by
Mikki Kunttu. He utilized a wide range of
Robe fixtures — the new ColorSpot 2500E
AT, the ColorSpot and ColorWash 1200E
ATs, the new ColorSpot 700E ATs and
ColorWash 250E ATs.
The deal with Robe was instigated by Eurovision 2007’s technical production manager
Ola Melzig, working for lighting and video suppliers/technical coordinators Spectra Stage &
Event Technologies from Stockholm, Sweden.
Melzig — production managing his sixth
ESC — also used Robe moving lights for the
2005 event in Kiev, Ukraine. This proved such
a positive success, he was keen to repeat the
experience. When he and Spectra won the
contract to technically produce the 2007 ESC,
Melzig cut the deal with Robe’s international
sales manager Harry von den Stemmen. The
fixtures were supplied direct from the Robe
factory in the Czech Republic, complete with
brand new bulbs from Phillips, with whom
Robe worked very closely. This ensured that
all fixtures had similar color temperatures.
The gently asymmetrical over-stage rig
was made up from a series of curved trusses
and was designed to look good on camera,
in addition to its practical role for hanging
lights. There was also a 26-meter truss circle
above the audience with a series of fingers,
plus assorted other trussing constructions
positioned around the arena. Robe fixtures
were rigged all across the over-stage and
over-audience structures.
The aesthetic result of the whole show
was truly stunning and became a huge talking point of the 2007 event. In addition to the
MiTrix screen, there was a Barco O-Lite catwalk thrusting out from the front of the stage,
and a central, curved O-Lite tower running
right up to the roof at the back — dubbed
“the cobra” — splitting the MiTrix in half.
Kunttu liked the reliability of the Robe
fixtures, “It’s really essential for an event like
this where fixtures are being run flat-out for
up to 16 hours a day during the build up and
rehearsal schedule.”
Kunttu’s operating team of five were all
running GrandMA consoles. They were Pekka
Martti, Michael Sylvest, Jutta “Maksa” Makinen, Antti Rehtijarvi and Mikko Linnavouri.
Chief moving light technician was U.K.-based
Dik Welland.
Robe Media Spinner 100 ATs were used
to suspend 8 bars of Studio Due CS4 moving PARs over the audience, attached to the
circular truss in the center of the auditorium.
Robe also supplied 48 of its new StageQube
324 LED panels, used for mood lighting and
ambient effects in the Green Room — an
inviting contemporary area designed area by
YLE’s Teija Vilkkovaara.
An act from the Eurovision contest
i-Pix on Ice
CHESHIRE, ENGLAND — The popular
Dancing On Ice Live U.K. arena tour is
using 46 new i-Pix Satellite LED fixtures. The fixtures were specified by
lighting designer Mark Cunniffe and
lighting director/programmer Svend
Pedersen and are being supplied by
the show’s main lighting contractor,
Neg Earth.
Twenty-six non-lensed Satellites
are toning the trusses above the ice,
Contestants receiving their critiques during
Dancing On Ice
configured as a circle in the middle
with eight straight runs radiating
outward (like a sun and its rays). The
Satellites are positioned around the
circle and at a slightly diagonal angle
in the ends of the trusses, shooting
light all the way along.
The other 20 units are rigged onto
six custom tank traps (or “trees”) and
secreted behind the set, positioned
behind the judges panel.
Pedersen comments, “The Satellites are a massive and strategic element of the whole lighting scheme.”
The set Satellites are being run in
6-channel mode, giving control over
the pulse modulation. This can be
tweaked to enable the units to behave like a high resolution device using less control channels. This tweak
has proved a popular function for
TV and live situations where channel
counts are high.
www.PLSN.com
2007 JUNE PLSN
13
ON THE MOVE Altman Rentals has hired Leigh MundyFretz as its new director of rental operations.
In addition to managing operations, MundyFretz will be working directly with customers.
Prior to joining Altman Rentals, Mundy-Fretz
spent the last seven years working for New
York City Lites as a project manager.
AV W - Te l a v
has appointed
All e n Moore to nationa l sales manager,
National Sales Group.
The National Sales
Group for AVW-Telav
is focused on provid- Allen Moore
ing high-end presen-
tation technology
solutions and staging
services for long-term
Association and Corporate-based customers throughout
North America. Moore
leaves his position as
GM of the Las Vegas Jim Ness
o ffice to tak e this
new position. Taking his place as GM in Vegas is Jim Ness. Jim most recently served
as Freeman’s Executive Director of Management & Labor Relations. Prior to that,
he opened Freeman’s Las Vegas office in
1992 and led the branch’s growth and development as the General Manager. Creative Stage Lighting has hired
Kevin Loretto as director of dealer sales.
Loretto comes to CSL
from the software industry with over 30
years of experience in
sales, marketing and
business development.
He has an extensive
background in build- Kevin Loretto
ing reseller channels and creating programs
to help increase the success of his employers and dealer partners. Loretto previously
worked for Enable Software.
Electrosonic has added three new people to its organization. Michael Donohue,
Richard Maxfield and
David Saville have recently joined the company’s growing Public
Spaces business. Michael Donohue joins
the company as business development manager and brings over Michael Donohue
30 years of rich-media
experience to Electrosonic. Before joining
Electrosonic, Michael
was the regional sales
manager for Pathfire;
prior to that, he was VP
of New Product Sales
for Ascent Media Network Services. Richard Richard Maxfield
Maxfield joins the company as national operations manager and
brings over 20 years
experience in Themed
Entertainment and
Corporate Communications to the Custom
Solutions division of
Electrosonic Systems David Saville
Inc. Prior to joining Electrosonic, Richard
was a Senior Program Manager with Walt
Disney Imagineering, where he was responsible for managing the design, production
and installation of show systems for new
attractions and parks on three continents.
David Saville joins Electrosonic as Systems
Sales Engineer and brings the team 20-plus
years of experience in the Motion Picture
and Television industries.
ETC has named
Randy Pybas as their
new West Coast regional manager, based out
of the ETC’s Hollywood,
Calif., office. His territory will include Los
Angeles, the Bay area,
Las Vegas, Seattle and
Randy Pybas
Denver, as well as Western Canada, and more. Pybas served most
recently in the same role for Strand Lighting,
and had more than 15 years in sales at Strand.
Prior to Strand, Pybas was director of sales
and marketing, as well as a sales engineer,
with Teatronics in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Lex Products Corp.
has hired Mark Gold as
a new technical sales
consultant. Mark brings
nearly twenty years of
production experience
that began off-Broadway, first as a stagehand, then as assistant
technical director of a Mark Gold
theatre, and finally as
a much sought-after
production electrician.
Additionally, Michele
Yindrick has been hired
as a new product manger. Michele brings over
20 years of handson theatrical lighting Michele Yindrick
and rigging experience
to Lex Products. She also has an extensive
background in technical sales and customer
service, as well as a specialization in project
management, equipment maintenance and
product trouble-shooting.
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5/30/07 10:45:38 PM
Liberty Wire & Cable has opened a new
warehouse facility in the Chicago area to service commercial and residential customers
in the Great Lakes region. Located in Carol
Stream, Ill., a suburb west of Chicago, the new
warehouse has more than 1,000 pallet spaces.
Martin Professional Inc. has named
long-time employee
Jamey Brock as regional
sales director — public
spaces, east. Jamey has
over 10 years of experience within the Martin
organization, and in his Jamey Brock
tenure at Martin, he
has worked in various
regional sales manager positions, primarily in the Midwest
and East Coast. Martin
Professional has also
named Ulrich Borup
Hansen product manager, smoke. Ulrich will Ulrich Borup Hansen
oversee the company’s
complete range of Jem and Magnum haze,
fog and heavy fog products. Ulrich comes to
Martin from Cheminova A/S, a large global
chemical company based in Denmark, where
he worked as a product manager dealing with
strategic product development and global
implementation. Ulrich is based at Martin
Professional’s worldwide headquarters in
Aarhus, Denmark, and replaces Mark Frihagen as product manager. Frihagen, business
area manager, smoke, also recently assumed
the position of managing director for Martin’s
security smoke division.
Mountain Light Company has made
Caroline Fuller their marketing director and
added her to the executive team at its headquarters in Colorado. Caroline Fuller most recently worked in the sales department at the
Broadmoor and has extensive experience in
client relations and office management.
Martin Profits
Continue to
Track Up
Continued from cover
loss of DKK 3.0 million (approx. $.5
which was better than expected.
Continued improvements in
quality standards and supply capacity, coupled with expected
strong demand for a string of new
products affirms expectations that
the positive trend will continue
the rest of the year. Martin expects, to achieve 2007 revenue of
approximately DKK 1.1 billion (approx. $200.0 million) with a profit
before tax of approximately DKK
40 million (approx. $7.3 million)
compared to earlier expectations
of DKK 30 million.
Martin’s positive 2007 first quarter numbers come on the heels of
record 2006 revenue numbers (DKK
1.03 billion or approx. $183 million)
and substantial improvements in
profit.
The audio-visual company NMR has
just acquired office space in Chicago,
located in the West Loop, with access
to the downtown area. The space has
been recently renovated and developed. NMR’s Chicago office is headed
by general manager Scott Patterson
and has been outfitted with $1 million
in new inventory. This new equipment
provides the Chicago office a foundation from which they can continue to
offer service and technology.
Swank Audio
Visuals LLC has hired
Bill Kubiak, CSEP, as
director of national
accounts for the Chicago Event Services
office. In this position, Bill is responsible for developing Bill Kubiak
and nurturing relationships with key clients, including corporations, associations, and production
companies. Prior to joining Swank, Bill
served as V.P. of technical operations for
an event production company, General
Manager for a nationwide hotel AV services provider and Director of Hotel Operations for a national AV staging company. Additionally, Swank Audio Visuals’
Chicago Event Services division recently
moved into a new 11,000-square-foot
facility in Woodridge, Ill. The new address is: 120 Earl Ct., #120, Woodridge, IL
60517. P: 630.296.8420
Total Event Production has hired
Mike McCallum as a project manager,
specializing in lighting and production design. McCallum will partner with
clients to coordinate design, lighting
implementation and additional core attributes to make the client’s event a success within their specified budget
Major Milestone for
Creative Company
Creative Stage Lighting’s production history includes notable tours, concerts and
events such as The Ramones, Phish, Meat Loaf,
Paul Anka, Celtic Woman and Stars on Ice. CSL’s
wholesale division has also established exclusive brands over the years such as RoHS compliant Dura-Flex™ cable and assemblies, Entertainment Power Systems™ power distribution
and connectors,Entertainment Industry Tape™
and Suspension Solutions™ rigging hardware.
Chauvet and Color Kinetics
Enter Global Licensing Agreement
forward-thinking, ground-breaking company,
while still allowing us to offer the value that
we are known for.”
“Color Kinetics is committed to enabling
the intelligent LED lighting market by granting access to the IP we’ve funded and developed for over ten years,” said Bill Sims, president and CEO, Color Kinetics. “We’re pleased
to assist Chauvet in its efforts, and thereby
support ongoing development of LED-based
entertainment lighting products.”
The global license applies to sales of
Chauvet products in certain markets covered
by Color Kinetics’ patent portfolio.
www.PLSN.com
100.0706.14-15.indd 15
2007 JUNE PLSN
15
5/30/07 10:46:11 PM
NEWPRODUCTS
Pronto Wireless Lights
Pronto wireless, battery-powered LED lights are inexpensive and transform any room into a party venue or product
launch site in minutes. They can be programmed to change
colors or remain one color, including white; programming can
be done in advance or on-site. Batteries last six to ten hours.
Pronto wireless lights, with RGB color-change technology, are
wirelessly controlled by DMX or handheld remote. The small
unit is well suited for integration into tabletop displays, floral
designs, globes and custom enclosures. The larger unit, still very
portable, is used to saturate walls, illuminate furniture, or “color
paint” event spaces.
Levy Lighting NYC • 212.925.2640 • www.levylighting.com/pronto
Penn Elcom Tower Lifts
Penn Elcom’s new range of tower lifts have a maximum load
capacity ranging from 220 pounds to 418 pounds. The smallest
of the range, the TL-118-220 Tower Lift, features a folding tripod leg base, and the larger models feature quad outriggers.
A hand-cranked winch flies loads in and out, and the optional
cross-arm assembly provides two half-couplers to rig truss. The
telescoping towers range in height from a maximum of 9’ 10” to
a maximum of 19’ 8,” and they collapse for easy tranport. They
can be used as single towers or as multilift systems. Shipping
from CA, NJ, TX & Canada.
Penn-Elcom • 973.378.8700 • www.penn-elcom.com
Tech Lighting’s Element
Tech Lighting’s Element is a new architectural recessed downlight system. Element features locking rotation, tilt and lens orientation, a three-lens capacity and one of the smallest apertures
available, allowing precision aiming of light. Element is available in
square and round; flanged and flangeless; open, lensed and shower
fixtures and features small die-cast trim options in four standard
finishes. Housing-mounted optics reduce glare and help achieve
maximum light output. Has a hot aiming system that adjusts the
tilt up to 40°, pan 361°, and locking lens orientation settings all via
color-coded screws. Element is available in electronic or dual-tap
toroidal transformer options, and the low-voltage MR16 based platform offers a wide selection of wattage and beam spread choices.
Encompass Lighting Group • 847.410.4400 • www.encompasslighting.com
American DJ “Pro” Series
American DJ’s new “Pro” Series includes the 64B LED Pro par
can, 64P LED Pro par can and Punch LED Pro color wash. The 64B
LED Pro black-finish par can and 64P LED Pro silver-polish par
can are equipped with 181 10 mm LEDs (36 red, 85 green and
60 blue) that combine to create smooth palettes of color. A dual
bracket system allows them to be hung securely or set squarely
on the ground. The Punch LED Pro neatly complements the two
“Pro” Series par cans by functioning as a wall wash effect with fast
or slow color-change operation. Featuring an Punch Panel with
252 10mm LEDs (81 red, 81 green and 90 blue).
American DJ • 800.322.6337 • www.americandj.com
Elation Professional’s High-Output White
And Ultraviolet LED Washes
Elation Professional’s Design LED 36WA white wash includes 30 white LEDs, plus 6 amber-colored LEDs, which can
be mixed via DMX to create varying degrees of warm and
cool-white hues. The Design LED 36 UV ultraviolet wash features 36 ultraviolet LEDs that will make objects glow in the
dark. The LEDs on both the Design LED 36WA and Design LED
36UV are rated at 100,000 hours and will last for years without replacement. They come with features such as strobing,
dimming (0–100%) and a 30º medium diffusion filter for wider
spread, but can be removed to make a more narrow 20º effect
which also improves the output by 15%. Both fixtures are fully
DMX-compatible, and they can also run to their own internal
programs in stand-alone/sound-active mode. Each unit
carries a suggested retail price of $1,199.95.
16
Elation Professional • 866.245.6726 • www.elationlighting.com
PLSN JUNE 2007
100.0706.16-17.indd 16
www.PLSN.com
5/30/07 10:48:11 PM
TLC Creative Special Effects and Blisslights
StarMaze Projector
The StarMaze projects a universe of light onto any
light-colored surface. Simulating a rotating universe, one
StarMaze can fill a 30-foot by 30-foot area with this projection. The projector weighs six pounds and can be mounted just about anywhere. Each projector comes with safety
cable and mounting clamp for safe, easy installation. The
StarMaze uses regular 120 volt power and about 3 amps.
Your #1 resource for
continuing education.
Visit www.plsnbookshelf.com
TLC Creative Special Effects • 310.822.6790 • www.starmazespecialeffects.com
SGM’s Palco 5 with W-DMX
SGM’s Palco 5 now containes W-DMX wireless DMX technology by Wireless Solution Sweden AB as a standard feature. It can recognize transmission signals within a radius of
over 1,640 feet. The GSM-based wireless DMX link does not
interfere with other types of signals, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
or GPRS-UMT and is not disturbed by them.
SGM • +39 0721 47 64 77 • www.sgm.it
ETC Source Four Revolution®
with Wybron® Inside
Every new ETC Source Four® Revolution moving light will be
shipped with a 24-frame-capacity “Wybron Inside” color scroller
based on Wybron’s Coloram® technology. The new color scroller will
further enhance the accuracy and speed of color changes. The new
“Wybron Inside” Revolution will also feature a new complement of
colors in its standard 12-color scroll. ETC is selling a kit for converting pre-Wybron Revolutions to the new scroller. The kit comes with
complete instructions and preloaded code and will take an estimated 30 minutes to install.
ETC • 800.688.4116 • www.etcconnect.com
Times Square Lighting C4T6
The C4T6 is a theatrical style unit available in either 120 or
277 volts. It is designed to accept T6 metal halide lamps in 39
or 70 watts. These units can be ordered with either a spot or
flood reflector that can easily be changed in the field. Energy efficiency and long lamp life make this unit ideal for lighting retail
applications. They feature four-way locking barndoors and an
external accessory holder that accepts louvers and a variety of
filters. Custom colors are available.
Times Square Lighting • 845.947.3034 • www.tslight.com
Martin’s Littlebig 3.0™ Xenon Fixture
Martin Professional Inc.’s Littlebig 3.0™ 3 kW Xenon singlearm moving head is part of its BigLite product line. Based on the
BigLite 4.5 Xenon, the Littlebig 3.0 features a compact and modular design to enhance its capability for indoor use. The Littlebig
3.0 offers lighting designers real-time CMY color mixing, diffusion
with electronic strobe and many other customizable effects. A 3
kW Xenon short arc bulb combines with a custom cold-mirror reflector to produce a bright beam. Its energy savings and reduced
heat output, thanks to a quiet cooling system, give a bulb life of
1500 hours. It is 95 cm high and weighs 154 lbs.
Martin Professional • +45 87 40 00 00 • www.martin.com
Lamina TitanTurbo™
Lamina, Inc.’s TitanTurbo™ is immediately available to
lighting application designers in two models — a 3000°K
“warm white” version equal in light output to the widely
used 75-watt halogen PAR-30 and 100-watt R-20 flood
lights; and a 4700°K “daylight white” cool model which is
twice as bright.
Lamina Ceramics • 800.808.5822 • www.laminaceramics.com
www.PLSN.com
100.0706.16-17.indd 17
2007 JUNE PLSN
17
5/30/07 10:48:41 PM
SHOWTIME
Taking Back Sunday
ST
CREW
Lighting Company: Christie Lites
Production/Tour Manager: Ward McDonald
Lighting Director/Designer: Nate Cox
Automated Lighting Operator: Olivier De Kegel
Rigger: Eric Durning
GEAR
2 Flying Pig Systems Wholehog II
24 Martin MAC 2000 Profiles
22 15
4
2
2
4
10
1
1
14
2
Martin MAC 600 NTs
Martin Atomic 3000 strobes
4-cell Molefays
Reel EFX DF-50 haze machines
Jem ZR33 fog machines
Twister fans
Christie Lites 208V power distros
Christie Lites 120V power distro
ETC Sensor 24-Ch dimmer rack
CM Lodestar 1-ton chain hoist
CM Lodestar 1/2-ton chain hoist
Blast 2007: DecaDance
Lighting Director/Automated Lighting Operator: Marc
Fisher
Lighting Technicians: Sarah Glasser, Erin Walsh, Andrew
Casper, Chelsea Fechter
Set Design: Scott Selman, Marc Fisher, Carlos Barillo
Set Construction: Scott Harris, Michael JaJa, Chelsea Fechter,
Dasi Seravalathan, Gursharan Bawa
Staging Carpenter: Tal Ayali, Karly Billings, Stav Edgar
Video Director: Nayo Hill, Mackenzie Miller,
Roxana Sharnsazar
VENUE:
GEAR
Churchill High School, Potomac, MD
CREW
Promoter/Producer: Churchill High School
Lighting Company: Main Light Industries
Production Manager: Rick McKinney, Main Light Industries
Lighting Designer: Scott Selman
1
17
36
20
46
36
30
Strand 520i console
Martin MAC 700 profiles
High End Systems Studio Color 575s
Coemar PARLite LED silvers
Strand SL 19s
Strand SL 26s
Strand SL 36s
VENUE:
GEAR
Bell Center, Montreal, Canada
Promoter/Producer: GEG & DejaScene
Lighting Company: Solotech
Production Manager: Pierre Paradis
Lighting & Set Design/Director: Pierre Roy
Automated Lighting Operator: Pierre Roy, Eric Nault
Lighting Technicians: Michel Pomerleau, Christian Houle,
Marc Oliver Croteau
Set Construction: Bell Center
Rigger: Dominic Drouin
Staging Company/Carpenter: Bell Center
15
2
1
2
12
1
1
1
2
4
2
1
3
2
1
1
1
Strand SL 50s
Reel EFX DF50 hazers
MotionLabs 60-Circuit MLD
Doug Fleenor Designs opto splitters
CM Lodestar 1-ton chain hoists
MotionLabs 24-Way Motor Controller
48’ 20” Tomcat box truss
150’ 12” Tomcat box truss
Main Light LightScape 24’x13’ fiber optic curtains
Martin QFX-150s
Lycian Midget HP
For-A VPS-300
Panasonic PT-LB50SUs
JVC GY-DV550s
Canon XH A1
Panasonic AG-DVX100a
Apple MacBook Pro
Jonas
ST
CREW
ST
1
16
28
24
24
4
42
14
14
4
MA Lighting grandMA
Vari*Lite VL3000 washes
Martin MAC 2000 profiles
Martin MAC 600s
Martin MAC 500s
Syncrolites
Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12s
Martin Atomic 3000 strobes
MR16 blinders
MR16 zip strips
18
PLSN JUNE 2007
100.0706.18-19.indd 18
www.PLSN.com
5/30/07 10:50:10 PM
WS
Barnstable-Brown Derby Eve Gala
VENUE:
GEAR
Louisville, KY
CREW
Producer/Lighting Company/Rigging:
Sounds Unlimited Productions
Production Manager: Brent Rogers
Lighting Director/Designer: Chris Hughes
Automated Lighting Operator: Derek Heeke
Lighting Technicians: Matt Rogers, Tony Bennett,
Jason Youngblood
Set Design/Construction: The Event Co.
Staging Company: Rent-N-Rave
Staging Carpenter: Terry Murphy
Video Company: Bisig Impact
ST
1
1
2
12
2
1
2
1
1
5
8
2
2
1
ST
Elation Show Designer 2 controller
70’ 12” square global truss
Global Truss universal junctions
American DJ P36 LEDs
Elation Pro FS follow Spots
Elation EWDMXT wireless transmitter
Elation EWDMXR wireless receivers
Elation DMX Branch4
Elation Show Designer 2 controller
Elation Design 12 Brick LEDs
Elation Design Spot 250s
Elation Power Spot 575s
Elation Power Spot 575IEs
Xtreme Structures 6’ Slings
Farm Bureau Insurance 2007 Sales Event
VENUE:
Grand Traverse Resort, Traverse City, MI
Crew:
Producer: d/s events group
Lighting/Staging/Video Company: UpLight
Technologies
Production Manager/Lighting Designer: David
Surbrook
Lighting Director: Lauren Groh
Automated Lighting Operator: Gerg Paul
Lighting Technician: Bob Fernholz
Rigger: Lynsey Glassbrook
Staging Carpenter: Damian Adams
Staging Products: StageRight Systems
Pyrotechnics: co2 Jets
Video Director: Jef Keathly
GEAR
1
12
4
18
16
24
4
12
4
2
2
1
12
1
2
MA Lighting grandMA Ultra-Lite
Coemar iWash Halos
Robe ColorSpot 700E AT
Coemar iWash LED
Coemar ParLite LED
Chroma-Q Color Block DB4
Coemar Mini-cyc
ETC Source Four PAR
ETC Source Four ERS
Leprecon ULD360 dimmers
Univers W-DMX wireless DMX
280’ Thomas style 12’ x 12’ truss
Stagemaker 1-ton motors
Motion Labs motor control
10.5’ x 14’ truss frame screens
1
3
2
3
1
9’ x 18’ truss frame screen
Christie 10K projectors
42” NEC plasma monitors
Sony D50 studio cameras
NewTek VT4 control system
Desperation Live Recording
VENUE:
New Life Church, Colorado Springs,
CO
CREW
GEAR
1
3
4
4
Hog 3
High End Systems x.Spot Extreme
High End Systems Studio Colors 575
High End Systems Studio Spots 575
4
4
10
24
12
12
3
High End Systems Studio Colors 250
High End Systems Studio Spots 250
High End Systems Techno Beams
PARs
Wybron Four-runner scrollers
ETC Source Four jr.’s
ETC Source Four 19°
Producer: Desperation 07
Lighting Company: New Life Church
/ Zebra Productions
Production Manager:
Jared Newman
Lighting Designer/Director: Terry
Taylor
Automated Lighting Operator:
Brian Worster
Lighting Technician: John Tabor
Set Design: Emily Gibson
ST
www.PLSN.com
100.0706.18-19.indd 19
2007 JUNE PLSN
19
5/30/07 10:50:39 PM
INSIDE THEATRE
P
Queen Takes
Virgin Queen
The irate
on the
It’s a fiery struggle set on a simple
stage in the latest big-budget musical
to hit Broadway
Stephanie J. Block (center) and the company of The Pirate Queen
By BryanReesman
T
here are
many
largescale productions on Broadway, but none quite
like The Pirate Queen, an epic adventure that
chronicles a unique time in history when two
powerful women clashed over the fate of a
country. It presents the true-life story of Grace
O’Malley, an Irish pirate who defied the attempts of Queen Elizabeth I to subjugate her
country and her people. The stage was set, so to
speak, for the Pirate Queen to take on the Virgin
Queen, and the musical interprets that famous
struggle with a lively mixture of action scenes,
Irish dance numbers and dramatic showdowns.
In recreating the landscapes and interiors of 16th-century Ireland, scenic designer
Eugene Lee — whose credits include Wicked,
Saturday Night Live and the original production of Sweeney Todd — visited the west coast
of Ireland to see where O’Malley lived. “You
can go see her castles,” he remarks. “They’re
still around. You can go see where she is supposedly buried. Everyone knows her and
knows about her. It’s kind of amazing. There
are all kinds of stories about her.”
On his way back to New York, Lee stopped
off in London and took the opportunity to visit
the re-creation of the Globe Theatre on London’s Bankside, where most of Shakespeare’s
plays were staged. “I don’t think anyone really
knows what the Elizabethan theatre looked like,
but this is the best guess, and it’s painted up
like sailing ships of the time,” he recalls. “I was
kind of amazed. I am a member of the New York
Yacht Club on 44th Street, and we have a model
group that is kind of painted in the same colors.
I thought that was very interesting.”
For the stage of The Pirate Queen, Lee actually had a mast placed on each side of the stage,
and these dressed-up columns acted as an ex20 PLSN JUNE 2007
100.0706.20-21.indd 20
tension of the O’Malley ship for the scenes that
required it. But for the designer, the set piece
also played into a special element of the stage
itself.“Theatre has a huge element of ships related to it because many stagehands have boats
of some kind, and all the rigging in a traditional
proscenium theatre comes from sailing,” he
says.“So there’s this mixture of taking a column,
putting some ship’s rigging on it, and a piece of
a crow’s nest or spar hanging off it, so there’s an
abstraction between the two worlds.”
Despite dressing up the sides and top of
the stage, Lee actually opted not to clutter the
stage too much, preferring a more streamlined
approach that allowed audience members to
use their imaginations a bit. It was an interesting change of pace for the man who designed
Wicked, one of the most elaborate shows to
ever hit Broadway.
“I honestly tried to make it intellectual
and simple,” Lee says of The Pirate Queen set.
“It wasn’t a gigantic opera set like The Flying
Dutchman, where a mast grows from the stage.
In a way, it’s a rather simple little set, in the
same way the Elizabethan stage of the Globe
is rather simple. It’s driven by acting and not by
big chunks of scenery. When I went to look at
the stage in London, I had my picture taken in
this little rowboat put on stage because they
were working on The Tempest. It was a simple
prop. It was kind of nice, you know?”
Lee used the real-life locations he viewed
as fodder for some of his set pieces. “The piece
of scenery that moves out into the house and
Left to right: Stephanie J. Block, Jeff McCarthy and Marcus Chait from The Pirate Queen
Eugene Lee
frames it is actually an abstraction of that theatre at Bankside,” he says.“The christening scene
with its window came right out of an actual location, and the English court was an abstraction
of the Elizabethan stage.”
What is most striking about the show is that
its sets are dramatic without being overwhelming.The ship simply consists of a stage-wide railing that slides onstage, rigging that’s lowered
from the ceiling, and a trap door for the storage
hold. The mast pieces on the edge of the stage
enhance their presence. The Queen’s royal court
is a simple, two-tiered set augmented by props
like large candelabras or a large mirror. One of
the countryside scenes consists of a castle in the
distance and a color backdrop with subtle video
projections for the sky, but nothing more. The
set backdrops slide in and out at a fast and furious pace, but the smooth flow of dialogue and
focus on certain characters allows them to take
on a cinematic flavor that leaves some of the
imagery to the imagination of the audience.
The set pieces for The Pirate Queen were
built by one of Lee’s favorite shops up in Canada
“that did Showboat and Wicked for me. It’s called
F&D Scene Changes in Calgary, Alberta. I went
there years and years ago when I did Showboat.
We’d taken bids from various shops, and the
producer called and wanted me to take a little
money off of it, so I had them send me all the
bids. There was already a lower bid from this
shop in Calgary, Alberta.They had just done that
Clint Eastwood movie Unforgiven. I called up the
film’s production designer Henry Bumstead and
asked him what he thought of the shop, and he
loved it. I’ve been using them ever since.”
While many of the set pieces — like the
castles — were made of metal framing and fi-
www.PLSN.com
5/30/07 10:52:30 PM
“Theatre has a huge element of ships related to it
because…all the rigging in a
traditional proscenium theatre comes from sailing,”
– Eugene Lee
The Wedding Ring Dance from The Pirate Queen
Stephanie J. Block and company
berglass, where things could be made of wood,
they were, including the mast and all the spars.
“All the line had to be flame retarded,” reports
Lee.“It had to be safe.”There appear to be plenty
of flames onstage, from torches to lit candles in
the royal court to a burning funeral pyre at the
end of Act 1, but with the exception of one torch
or so, all of it is illusion. According to Lee, the
crew initially tried “a gas-driven flame device in
the boat for the funeral at the end of the first act,
but I heard that the New York Fire Department
wouldn’t approve it in the end.”
A solution was needed. “I came across
a Web site for a company with people who
used to work at Disney Imagineering,” recalls
Lee. “They had a fire effect using low-pressure
steam, and it looked pretty good, so I called
them up. They sent a unit of theirs. It was a big,
clunky thing, and we set it up in a shop outside
New York. It’s a lighting effect really. They light
up from below, and it looks like fire in an interesting, theatrical way. This unit was three feet
high, and we told them we would try to use it if
they could re-engineer it so it was eight inches
high, and they did. I had never used it before. I
like new things like that. It’s getting very hard
to use real fire on stage these days. I live in
Rhode Island, where we had the great Station
fire a few years ago.”
When asked if he is happy with the final
results of The Pirate Queen, Lee replies frankly,
“Yes and no. I was unhappy that the producers were beaten up so badly by the critics,
but in this business, if you let that get to you,
you can’t go on. I’m generally happy with it,
but I think there were a lot of issues beyond
my control. I always wanted ‘pirate’ out of the
title. I thought it sends a Johnny Depp signal, and it’s not really about that. It’s about
the relationship of a number of people. But I
was happy with it. I thought Ken Posner did
a nice job on the lighting. We tried a lot of
fun things together. It’s always a pleasure. I
felt that the costumes were particularly nice.
Given all the issues, I thought it was a serious
effort with a big cast.”
100.0706.20-21.indd 21
6/1/07 7:44:13 AM
INSTALLATIONS
Reno’s 210 North Nightclub
By ErinBlakemore
C
“
hange will happen.” Sound like a trite
motto? Think again. For one designand-build contractor saddled with executing another designer’s vision in just over
a week, it was more like a mantra. The tale of
the installation at Reno’s 210 North night club
isn’t just the story of a little night club that
could — it’s an example of how a group of
disparate technicians “set ego aside, admitted
there was a good idea,” and got to work.
Assembling the Team
From the outset, the lighting installation
at 210 North, a new bar/lounge in Reno, Nev.,
was a team effort. Richard Rutherford, owner
of Rutherford Design in Northridge, Calif., was
contracted by Jill Gianoli and Rob Stone, restaurateurs who wanted to translate their taste
for food and drink into an ultra-lounge for
Reno’s up-and-coming class of young professionals and out-of-towners. They quickly assembled a team of out-of-town pros, including Oakland, Calif.-based interior designer
Charles Doell of Important Design. Known for
his work in high-end restaurants and nightlife,
The entrance-way to 210 North
is up a narrow escalator with
special lighting. The walls are
lined with chrome chain-link
fencing.
Doell had a vision: a smooth, space-age ambience that would elevate nightlife to an art
form. Key to his design was a lighting scheme
that centered on striking architectural features. His scheme was to be implemented by
Rutherford and his lighting team.
The club was divided into two primary
spaces: a “meta-lounge” featuring ornate
lampshades and a transcendent entrance,
and the Divinity Lounge, which would feature
chrome curtains, velvet loveseats, a white
marble bar and a magnificent glass chandelier designed by artist Eva Menz. Two VIP
lounges, complete with private entrances and
facilities, couches, beds and an inviting lighting scheme, were also designed, with future
plans allowing for innovative balcony space
and a restaurant.
Crunch Time (and Space)
With only nine days for installation, programming and training, Rutherford had to
work fast. That speed doesn’t show in the
impeccable entryway, which features a gigantic escalator stairwell ascending to the
real action of the club. A massive steel frame
with mesh assembly was flown in the over
35-foot-high space, with vinyl wrapping that
created an infinity effect to transport partygoers into the main portion of the lounge.
This component wasn’t without its challenges: between tricky wiring (limited workspace
cramped Rutherford’s style) and daunting
scaffolding, the installation was threatened
from the get-go. However, some perseverance and a bit of ingenuity resulted in a form
of transportation that can only be termed
immersive: 150 custom lamp shades cover
Elation Octopod LED fixtures; stainless chainlink covers the sides of the stairwell and Elation TracPod 81s provide gentle illumination
every five feet. Monochromatic programming
creates an “out-there” tunnel effect that helps
visitors transition into the lounge above with
a sense of style and motion.
“The escalator area involved a lot of
scaffolding and teams working above the
ceiling line ‘blind’ from the team below,”
recalls Rutherford. Even with cabling and
DMX channel layout plans already in place,
The VIP lounge
22 PLSN JUNE 2007
the project was time-consuming, painstaking and just plain exhausting for Rutherford and his workers, who felt the time
crunch as they made minor adjustments.
The stairwell installation also required
flexibility: Rutherford and his team had to
adjust for fixture locations based on minor
HVAC changes. To make matters worse, his
intensive and detail-oriented planning
couldn’t stand up to details that deviated
even slightly from the drawings. And there
were many such details. From the size and
shape of the escalator ceiling frame to the
individual lamp shades, nothing seemed
to go as planned.
“We had planned everything in detail,
right down to the required numbers of 3⁄8”
washers,” says Rutherford. “We had precut
about 200 pieces of threaded rod for the
lamp shades and then — well, the shades
came in shaped differently and we had to
recut all the mounting hardware.” For a
project tight on time and one that required
constant response to on-site mechanical
challenges and designer vision, Rutherford
The Divinity chandelier draws focus above the bar.
www.PLSN.com
A second VIP
lounge. Each VIP
area comes with
its own entrance
and facilities.
His intensive and detail-oriented
planning couldn’t stand up to details
that deviated even slightly from the
drawings.
Beds line the wall
of a lounge area.
couldn’t devote too much time to his usual
tools of the trade: exhaustive testing, data
runs and planning. However, with a bit of
will and some teamwork, Rutherford managed to pull out all the stops — and do a
great deal of on-site custom fabrication for
the entryway and the rest of the club, despite the odds.
The Nitty Gritty
The club’s showpiece, the sleek Divinity
Lounge, was oh-so-simple to light, thanks to
an innovative 5000-piece, futuristic-shaped
glass fixture. Only four Elation Vision Color
250s were required to light the space, with
their four-way barn doors helping to control the light spill. More challenges, however,
were in store as installers worked on creating visual targets that drew customers’ eyes
without distracting or seeming busy. This
flow was obtained by specialty areas, each
with a striking feature and an individual
lighting style. The club’s main island bar, for
example, was made of frosted glass and
lined with high-density amber LEDs to pro-
vide a sense of depth and invitation, while
the dance floor area is designated by its own
lighting scheme of Elation Power Spot 250s
and Power Wash 250 moving yokes under
the control of a CompuLive system. Visual
flow was maintained by five 15-foot ceiling
“pods” framed in steel and wrapped with
white stretch vinyl for a sleek, spacey feel.
The pods help reflect over 80 additional custom RGB lamp shades.
Then came the details: “architainment”
control systems required over 500 DMX channels and were designed to provide complex
programming, yet offer simplistic playback.
Rutherford opted for the Elation AR-32 with
hand-held IR remote. “Control and programming are almost always the items that end
users look at as a budget item and not as a
facility management issue,” he notes, adding
that he thinks this is a big mistake for facilities with large installations of architainment
lighting. “I would never give the responsibility of proper house lighting to a DJ; I don’t
expect an entertainer to be required to handle that,” he says.
Maximize Design, Minimize
Frustration
Despite the many challenges, the club
was completed on time and with impressive results. The 210 North night club
opened to rave reviews and great big
crowds, drawing attention to downtown
Reno’s growing revival and the influx
of hip, hot night spots for the changing
demographic of the city. Rutherford and
team weren’t just involved in the creation of an immersive night club; by facing the diverse challenges of the design
and implementation of 210 North, they
were also participating in the makeover
of a thriving downtown.
Despite the project’s many pitfalls,
Rutherford was pleased with the results.
“We’d followed Charles Doell’s direction before,” notes Rutherford, “and we
were prepared for minor changes along
the way. That isn’t a slight — it’s a compliment to the tenacity which Charles
commits to his designs. Great palettes
and shapes make for great lighting.”
Rutherford notes that on a complex
build like 210 North, it’s important to
communicate clearly and mind the details. “Placement of architectural control devices and proper training of the
management team as to the hows and
whys should be handled impeccably
and within the context of the owners’
expectations,” he notes.
When asked how designers facing
their own install challenges can minimize frustration and maintain flexibility,
Rutherford has words for the wise: plan,
plan, plan — then allow for changes. “Our
experience is that you can and should
plan everything possible, and then leave
extra time and extra budget for a custom
job like this. If you would like another
detail drawing for something, ask before
you bid the job, but always ask before
you leave for that distant job site!”
The bottom line is, change is inevitable, and it’s sometimes stressful. Still,
when faced with bravery and flexibility,
it can create a thing of beauty.
210 North’s main dance floor
EQUIPMENT LIST
20
220
8
6
6
1
1
Elation TracPod 81s
Elation Octopod 30s
Elation Vision Color 250s
Elation Power Spot 250s
Elation Power Wash 250s
Show Designer 2 console
AR-32 Memory Remote
Control
Doug Fleenor DMX Data Splitters
Elation CompuLive DMX Control
System
www.PLSN.com
THE TEAM
Mr. Important Design
(www.misterimportant.com)
Rutherford Design
(www.rutherforddesign.com)
2007 JUNE PLSN 23
PRODUCTION PROFILE
Celtic Woman sings their way into the Big Time
Celtic Woman
programmer Travis Shirley
By BryanReesman
Y
ou say you’ve never heard of Celtic
Woman? You may not have, but millions of PBS viewers and concertgoers certainly are in on the secret, although
it may not be one for much longer. Having
notched three successful albums on the
Billboard charts (including a recent Top 10
entry) with no MTV presence, the Irish folk/
pop project offering both covers and originals has beguiled audiences with a quartet
of pretty voices, a vigorous violinist, pulseracing percussion and a smooth mixture of
energetic and ethereal moments. Currently
finishing up a 100-plus show tour, Celtic
Woman is becoming one of the biggest (yet
quietest) pop sensations around. “It’s wild,”
declares lighting designer Tom Kenny. “It’s
one of those phenomenons like Riverdance
that goes under the radar, then all of a sudden, becomes huge.”
Kenny knows of what he speaks. The
man works MTV Awards shows around the
world and has also designed for The Who
and David Bowie. He was referred to the
Celtic Woman tour when they wanted a redesign because he knew the music — he’s
worked for Enya, Clannad and U2, who are all
covered in the show. It also helped that he’s
from Ireland and got the stamp of approval
from many top-notch people in his homeland. He gladly accepted the gig and began
collaborating with the tour’s lighting director and programmer Travis Shirley in Tampa,
Fla., at the beginning of the year.
“When I’m programming, I get very involved, and it’s just very intense really,” notes
24 PLSN JUNE 2007
Kenny, who likes to research the performers
and the music he is designing for. “I just get
into the grain of something, and for Celtic
Woman, because it’s such a show show from
the minute the house lights go down to the
last number, I just felt that it was something
that I could really spend some time at. I had
an absolutely fabulous programmer, Travis
Shirley, who helped me out immensely. The
great thing for me is that he’d worked on the
show previously, so he knew the mechanics
of the thing. At the same time, they had never worked with me, and they were very open
to what I could bring to the show.”
“We were programming for about five
days of rehearsal, just programming in the
evening,” recalls Shirley. “I was rushed to
program this whole thing. That’s why I’m
still programming it, because I didn’t have
as much time as I would have liked to really
program the show. We’ve got some information in the desk and cues built into the
desk, but I didn’t have enough time to really
clean it up the way I wanted to.” Thus, on
tour he has been fine-tuning the show and
evolving its look.
“Travis has done a fantastic job,” remarks
Kenny.“I inherited him, and sometimes when
you inherit somebody they try to hold on to
the old show, but he was very open to working with me and did a very, very good job. I’ve
worked with some of the best programmers
in the world, and he easily fits into that genre
with his speed and style. He really wanted to
keep the whole standard of it going. He’s one
of those up-and-coming stars.”
Singing Green
Cool colors, specifically greens and blues,
dominate the Celtic Woman show, which features four main female singers, a lively violinist, musical director/pianist David Downes,
three multi-instrumentalists on stage left,
two percussionists and eight choir members,
who move around the most on stage. “It just
seems that a lot of the songs are mystical and
myth-based about Irish history, and a lot of
them are very ancient songs, so I just felt the
blues and greens,” says Kenny. “There is also
some very uplifting stuff that David Downes
wrote, so that’s why I brought in the warmer
colors there. The colors were not hard for me
to choose because they came to me automatically. They had decided to come up with a new
set, which was very different from the last set.
On the last tour they had a projection screen,
and they were finding it hard to get away from
that. We just decided to get rid of it, so having
a very easily lit, light-friendly set was great for
me. It was very easy to light the show.”
Like Kenny, Shirley is experienced in working mostly with rock bands, having recently
toured with Disturbed, worked with pop/opera group Amici Forever, and also having programmed for the likes of Cold, Van Halen and
R.E.M. For him, it has been quite a change going from gigs with highly energetic and semichaotic lighting patterns to a show where
each song has one look that defines that particular moment in the show; from concerts
with changing set lists and a little improvisation to ones with an unwavering set list and
audio run on time code from start to finish.
www.PLSN.com
Gear List
14
8
12
16
4
4
1
Mac 2k washes
Mac 2k performance
Mac 2k profile
Studio beam pc
Mac 250 entours
Color pro’s (fiber source )
Truss spot
“When you’re in a situation like this there
are not too many dynamics,” notes Shirley.
“There are moving lights, but in this show
you’re limited in the amount of movement
you can have. The set is huge. It’s a plain white,
gray scale set. Each song is really fresh because you’re transforming the set via color for
each particular song. That’s why I love the set
being the color and texture that it is because
it takes color so, so well.”
Because so many of the Celtic Woman
performers are stationary, Kenny created a
mood for every song. “On some songs I have
just one look up and just a little twinkle in
some of lights, and that works,” the designer
notes.“You sit there and fall into a trance with
the show. Shows that work on the stage are
ones that when you get into the theatre, you
forget about everything else. By the end of
the show you’ve gone through a story or a
journey. That’s what I felt with Celtic Woman.
There’s a huge cross-section of people that
go and see it. I think the show has come at
a time in everyone’s lives, and a time in the
world, when people need to escape a bit, so
it works that way. I think the bonus of hav-
ing those beautiful girls’ voices just helps.
I’ve seen it five or six times now, and people
just walk away happy. People go see it again.
Everybody involved is so passionate about it,
and that comes out in the show.”
Celtic Woman uses only 50 moving
lights. “We got a great package from Creative in upstate New York,” reports Kenny.
“My dominant light is the Mac 2K Profile,
and that’s basically it. There are not that
many lights up there. If you compare it to
another type of show that’s out there, it’s
half of what they would normally have, but
they had budget concerns and wanted to
keep a very tight ship. A majority of the people that work for Celtic Woman come from
Riverdance, so they’re used to that theatrebased type of tour. I was given that brief,
and I’m a very minimal lighting designer
anyway. With any band or show I work with,
I try to use lights as much as I can.”
The lighting rig includes 14 Mac 2K
Washes, 12 Mac 2K Profiles, eight Mac 2K
Performances, 16 Studio Beam PCs, four
Mac 250 Entours, four Color Pros for spots,
and one truss spot. “The Mac 2K is the
workhorse in this show,” says Kenny. “Martin gave me great gobos. I have a good
relationship with them, so any time I do a
new show they give me new types of gobos to use, and that adds to it.” Shirley operates two Wholehog II consoles that are
MIDI-ed together; one is the main board
and the other is the back-up. He also controls two DF-50 hazers for atmosphere and
a low smoke generator that creates a lowlying fog for several eerie numbers.
Star Light, Star Bright, Star Curtain
The back wall of the show features a fiber optic drape with hundreds of LEDs, which
is used during the second half of the show.
The lights are white, but are also hooked up
to a color-changing light, a moving light that
doesn’t move, that feeds it different colors.
“I have some white sometimes, I have them
red sometimes, and several times I have them
blue,” explains Shirley. “It can be any color I
want. Typically, I like white because I like the
intensity of the white. It reads a little bit better
than everything else and gives this whole idea
of stars. I also have them twinkle like stars.”
For the Radio City show, 12 VL-3000s were
brought in to effectively light the venue because of its impressively large, curved ceiling.
“I textured the whole roof of Radio City in
gobos,” explains Shirley. “There were certain
songs where I opened the iris on the lights and
washed out the theatre, but there were several
songs where I put these weird gobos and trickling effects on the ceiling.” Unfortunately, Shirley only had the afternoon of the show to get
everything programmed, so he was cramming
everything in, but he got all the information
into the console and got the look he wanted.
A major, regular component of the show is
a collection of five follow spots, four at front of
house and one atop the lighting truss. Shirley
sees this element as a challenge as he deals
with different spot operators every night. He
notes that how well they perform their job
depends on how much they are invested in
making the show itself successful.
“People on a rock show can mess up because
that show is structured that way,” notes Shirley.
“Nobody’s going to notice it. But in this show,
things are so subtle that when you do mess up,
when a spot operator doesn’t do something correctly, it’s very, very noticeable. I’m giving spot
cues 10- or 12-second fades sometimes, and I’m
trusting that person to do a true 10-count or 12count fade. It depends upon how much the person really cares about the gig in general. If they’re
really into making the show look good they’ll do
it, but I find that if they’re just here to do the gig
and get it done with, then they’re kind of halfassed about it. That’s a major complication that I
run into every day as far as calling the show.”
The most dynamic spot is the one operated over the stage. Shirley uses it for special
effects. “I don’t really use it as a proper follow
spot,” he reveals. “He’s actually sitting on top
of my lighting truss. We do these nice silhouettes with him. He’s not used at all like a traditional follow spot. I’m using him in a very theatrical, very mystical way. It’s a pretty creative,
backlit silhouette on the girls.”
Places, Please
A major logistical problem on the tour has
to do with the size of the Celtic Woman set. It
is nearly 68 feet wide, and not every venue
the tour hits is as expansive as Radio City.
According to Shirley, some smaller theatres
require the crew to cram in the set, which in
turn means the lights have to be crammed in
as well, making the setup more centralized
than it normally is, and making it look a little
smaller than it was designed to look.
Still, he says the set works well and that it
has made it into every single theatre.“In an ideal world, I would like to have an 80-foot wide
www.PLSN.com
100.0706.24-25.indd 25
proscenium every day,” Shirley says. “When we
get into these smaller B-market and C-market
theaters that have a 40-foot proscenium, my
downstage truss is 40 feet wide and will barely
fit, but we always manage to get it.”
Shirley says the set was designed with
an A version, a B version and a C version,
whereby some of the large panels onstage
are trimmed in number to make room for everyone. “So if we run into a situation where
I can’t fit everything, we cut two far downstage panels,” he explains. “We still have the
set there, but we subtract it going upstage
as the venues get smaller and smaller. As it
goes upstage it also works more toward the
center stage. So if we’re playing a place that’s
very narrow, I’ll cut the upstage piece, and if
we’re playing a place that’s even more narrow, we’ll cut the next upstage piece. We’ve
only had to do that twice, thank God, but
that’s another problem that we do or will
run into. We’ve been pretty lucky because
we’ve been playing pretty nice places. There
are also a lot of floor lights lighting these set
pieces, so in smaller venues there’s less room
for me to put them in.”
Despite all of these obstacles, Shirley
and the crew have been pulling off the Celtic
Woman show at all of their tour stops. The
combination of beautiful voices, faces, lights
and songs certainly captivated the Radio
City audience. So much so, in fact, Kenny reports that the girls have been invited back
for a week of gigs at the venue. It’s easy to
see why. “This show is nice, it’s pretty and it
sounds great,” he declares. “It’s exactly what
people want to see.”
2007 JUNE PLSN 25
6/1/07 7:45:48 AM
OVATION
stands alone
Linda Evans
INSTALLATIONS Las Vegas’ Green Valley Ranch takes in a
big club install for the Ovation nightclub.
House band Rich & Famous takes the stage.
By DavidMcGinnis
Gotta Have the Gear
The rig installed at the Ovation contains
what Pope called “an absurd amount of gear;”
with more than 100 fixtures of both automated and conventional. The conventional
fixtures include ETC Source Fours, with 15
19-degree, 10 26-degree and 15 36-degree
units, in addition to 20 Source Four PARs.
For the ellipsoidals to add some color to the
atmosphere, Pope spec’d 20 Ocean Optics
SeaChanger color changers. The gear also
includes six Martin Atomic 3000 strobes, 15
Vari*Lite VL2500 Spots, five Vari*Lite VL3000
Spots and 30 High End Systems Studio Command 700s. And if these 116 fixtures aren’t
completely over the top for a club of this size,
consider this: there are also four High End Systems DL.2 digital luminaires.
To control the rig, 4Wall supplied the Ova-
26 PLSN JUNE 2007
100.0706.26-27.indd 26
The lighting booth
Kevin Scroggins
tion with a Flying Pig Systems Hog iPC with
a Wholehog III expansion wing. The console
runs eight universes, with four running directly out of the console and four more through a
DMX Widget. These outputs are then distributed to 15 ETC Net2 nodes.
Surprisingly enough, the real eye candy in
the club, though, is the trussing. Supplied by
Tomcat, the trussing consists of sections that
radiate from a central point, allowing for different lighting looks throughout the space.
With the various positions the truss grid can
execute, the rig can change the entire atmosphere in a single cue. The two Reel EFX DF50 hazer machines add to the atmosphere by
making the aerial beams visible.
The Ovation differs from normal nightclubs in one very important way — it’s built
around a stage. House band Rich & Famous
fills in most nights, with other mid-list acts
taking the stage on a regular basis. The club
opened up with Big Bad VooDoo Daddy, and
has Rick Springfield, Grand Funk Railroad and
Kool & The Gang lined up to play.
Video plays a role in the Ovation’s narrative, too. Multiple hi-def video screens above
the bar make you feel less like a bar-goer and
more like a club-hopper. If this sort of environment inspires you to get out of the house, then
the Ovation might be the right place to head.
The stage also augments its presence by the
use of video. When acts are performing onstage, video provides guests with hi-def I-mag.
The spider-web truss in the Ovation
Give ‘Em What They Want
According to Pope, Green Valley Ranch
management “wanted this to be a flagship,
top-notch room.” Having already completed
club installs from Las Vegas to Lake Tahoe in
the last year, 4Wall took the contract with the
Linda Evans
N
ightclubs behave differently than your
standard show. Whereas a backstage
area normally provides a relative sanctuary from the crush of the crowd, nightclubs
are a different beast. Every inch of the space
is a stage unto itself, with every guest trying
to put on their own show. This presents a
lighting designer with a combination of challenges and opportunities unique to the club
installation.
The new Ovation nightclub, which opened
its doors on Friday, May 11 in Las Vegas’ Green
Valley Ranch Hotel and Casino, has occupancy of roughly 350 guests. But the lighting rig
installed by Las Vegas-based 4Wall Entertainment can compete with rigs in much larger
venues. 4Wall’s Buddy Pope served as designer and project manager for the installation,
and 4Wallers Joe Buttry and James LeBlanc
assisted him as install technicians.
www.PLSN.com
6/1/07 11:20:39 AM
10
15
15
20
4
30
6
ETC Source Four 26-Degree Ellipsoidals
ETC Source Four PARs
High End Systems DL.2 Digital
Luminaires
High End Systems Studio Command 700s
Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes
1
1
15
5
2
5
3
Flying Pig Systems Hog iPC Console
w/Wing
High End Systems F100 Fog Generator
Vari*Lite VL2500 Spots
Reel EFX DF-50 Haze Machines
Tomcat 10-Foot 12”x12” Light Duty Truss
Tomcat 5-Foot 12”x12” Light Duty Truss
Linda Evans
Rich & Famous
Linda Evans
Linda Evans
Video screens over the bar
Rich & Famous on stage
provide flexibility for incoming bands.
Most of the cable running to the rig has
been kept entirely airborne to the feet
of the masses from treading on the highvoltage and data cabling. All told, the install, part of phase three of a major project involving multiple areas of the casino,
took from November of last year until last
month — about seven months altogether.
Done and Done
Now that the Ovation is functional,
control of the rig passes off entirely to
Green Valley ranch and Ovation personnel.
Pope told PLSN that there will be a corps of
a few techs who will program and operate
the Hog iPC. Among those crewmembers
set to work behind the console is Scott
Preston. Pope and his crew patched the
console and set it up so that it’s ready to
program, but all the cues will be written
by in-house club techs. Ovation and Green
Valley Ranch will also handle all the maintenance on the system now that the install
is complete.
The Ovation has squeezed quite an
arsenal of gear into a 350-capacity venue,
and there’s no way to tell how these things
play out until they get rolling. But in Vegas,
the odds are always in favor of the house.
Green Valley Ranch might be a hike off of
the Strip, but all the locals will tell you that
if you want to win, off the Strip is where
you want to go. www.PLSN.com
intention of accommodating their request.
Though Pope designed the lighting,
Ovation and Stations Casinos management — the parent company for Green
Valley Ranch — had what Pope called “an
active hand” in the design and planning
of the venue. Kevin Scroggins and Jeff
Thompson, both of Green Valley Ranch,
communicated their wants and needs to
Pope and the 4Wall team, who then executed those ideas.
While relationships like this can sometimes be tenuous, Pope told PLSN that he
and his team have worked with Stations
Casinos long enough on enough various
projects to be able to work in concert. As
Pope puts it, “We know the formula for
how they need things.”
Of course, what would any install be
without some challenges? The biggest
challenge was the ceiling height — certainly not an unusual challenge in a club
installation. But this one was only 14 ½ feet
above the deck. Add to that the fact that
the truss was pre-assembled prior to delivering it to the club with the idea that the
walls could be moved to accommodate it.
But it was discovered after the fact that
the walls could not in fact be moved. Nevertheless, the crew persevered and somehow got the job done.
For the stage area, multiple floor pockets were installed to accommodate stage
power and data distribution in order to
2007 JUNE PLSN 27
PRODUCTION
P R O F I L E
By PhilGilbert
Photos By RobertBehounek
Well it’s bulls and blood
It’s dust and mud
It’s the roar of a Sunday crowd
It’s the white in his knuckles
The gold in the buckle
He’ll win the next go ‘round
— Garth Brooks, “Rodeo”
Martina McBride
Alan Jackson
THERE’S AS MANY HEADLINERS AS COWBOYS AT THE HOUSTON LIVESTOCK SHOW AND RODEO
A
lmost everyone has a picture in their
head of what a rodeo looks like. For
most, an image of a bull-rider probably
comes to mind. But be they death-defying
clowns or hair-pin chuck-wagon turns, your
image of rodeo is about to change.
Rodeo: Texas-Sized
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
is the world’s largest rodeo. With an annual attendance that well exceeds one million spectators, the event takes place over 20 days (and 20
nights) every year starting in March.
Reliant Stadium is home to HLSR and Houston’s NFL Franchise, the Texans. The stadium is
the only facility in the world that has been specifically designed to offer premier facilities for
both a major-league sports team as well as an
annual rodeo event, and it sits on a footprint of
nearly two million square feet.
Each day includes a full roster of rodeo
events, beginning in the early evening, where
competitors vie for their piece of a $1.275 million purse. But after the last calf has been roped
the crowd still isn’t at capacity, and only then
do you begin to see the indicators of what is
still to come.
As the sporting events come to a halt, fans
continue to pour in and take their seats for
the conclusion of the night’s entertainment.
A close eye on various parts of the Texas-sized
room reveals an army of people and equipment taking their places quickly and (for the
most part) calmly.
The first people to hit the dirt are a team of
shovel-wielding cowboys at a dead run. Their
goal: to quickly remove the eight inches of
packed dirt and clay concealing a trap door in
the stadium’s buried floor.
As feeder cable, audio snakes and data
lines are pulled up from below, a 70-foot wide
lighting rig begins to descend, complete with
an octagon of high-resolution LED video
screens, eventually coming to rest at its show
elevation in the center of the stadium. A 40foot wide stage propels itself slowly across the
trampled rodeo soil to its in-the-round position at center-dirt.
As connections are made to the stage and
ZZ Top
28 PLSN JUNE 2007
100.0706.28-29.indd 28
the lighting rig above, the lighting systems begin to come online, with various fixtures turning quickly on and off, indicating a last-minute
positioning and lamp check. Then suddenly, the
banks of stadium lighting go out. As the stadium is bathed in darkness, three men can be
found behind their lighting desks at the south
end of the stadium, variously standing, sitting or
bouncing in their dust-laden chairs.
As a brief multimedia presentation plays,
fingers can be seen making last-minute adjustments to cue-lists and sending a reset command
to the latest fixture that has succumbed to the
ever-present grime. This team of designerprogrammers will shortly be thrown into
their own version of an eight-second bull
ride. From the first note played on stage, they
will punt their way through a nonstop hour of
music, playing back cues they have never seen
to songs they have never heard, all the while
making it look like a well-rehearsed touring
show.
And that’s just the first night.
Design
Jim Brace, head of the lighting department
at Houston-based LD Systems, is the crew chief
for HLSR’s lighting crew. Brace’s touring background with Lynyrd Skynyrd, Foreigner, Peter
Frampton and Stevie Ray Vaughan, gives him
a seasoned and steady perspective on a show
that can be brutally demanding on the easiest
of days. As the crew chief and lighting designer,
Brace is responsible for the evolution of the rig
every year. Not reinventing so much as enhancing, the design of each year’s system focuses
on the implementation of new technologies in
combination with tried-and-true techniques.
Says Brace, “This year’s design process
focused mainly on the addition of Vari*Lite
VL3000 Spots and High End Systems Studio
Command 1200s as well as Coemar LED
PARs for truss warmers. There’s not a specific
design criteria for each year’s show as much
as a want to keep up with the latest in technology while working within a budget.”
The lighting rig is broken into three independent systems: an automated lighting system and a conventional system share space on
the 70-foot diameter “mother-ship”; a perimeter system that consists of automated lighting mounted throughout the stadium; and the
main lighting grid — a square center section
and four trapezoidal “wings” — that consists entirely of 26-inch by 30-inch pre-rig truss.
The stage that is rolled in place each
night includes a scenic backed turntable that
constantly rotates throughout each concert.
Since the stage (and the artist) is never in a
fixed position, focuses are designed as symmetrical washes without any fixed specials.
And while the rig is very complex, the underlying theory is not. Brace says there is a simple
idea driving the shape and the placement of
every piece of the system.
“Create a big look. It simply has to be big for
such a big stadium.”
Load-In (Day One)
By the middle of February, the stadium’s
palletized grass has been removed to a dedicated outdoor lot, while truckloads of dirt
have replaced green with brown for an annual motor-cross event. With the retractable
roof locked in its closed position, load-in for
rodeo is set to begin.
From Day One, Brace and his crew have
about 10 days to get roughly 200 moving lights
and another 200 conventional fixtures in place
and working amidt a barrage of vendors and
topsoil laden dump trucks.
As Brace assists in the installation of a combined total of 100+ audio, video and lighting
points, the rest of the lighting crew make their
way through miles of concourses and seats,
mounting the moving-mirror fixtures to the
concrete ledges of each seating level. These fixtures will form concentric rings of lighting that
rise through the building.
Roughly 10 stories above the rodeo dirt, another two dozen High End Systems Cyberlights
and an equal number of Syncrolite fixtures will
be installed to wash the entire stadium in texture and color. The 7000-watt xenon fixtures
are over four feet tall and weigh 250 pounds
each. To ease the installation and maintenance
of these fixtures, LD Systems custom-manufactured moveable steel support arms for each
Beyoncé Knowles
fixture. These assemblies are just a few of the
many features in this stadium that exist solely
for this annual event.
Rounding out the perimeter system are another dozen Syncrolites installed on the floor,
with three at each corner of the competition
dirt. As the crew races to complete the perimeter system, the truss grid for the stage lighting
systems has taken shape and installation of the
other two lighting systems can begin. To simplify installation and reduce cable requirements, all
of the power distribution and dimming equipment is mounted on the truss structure along
with the 300+ light fixtures. Along with the
complexities involved with any system of this
scale, a handful of the fixtures and equipment
will arrive near the end of the load-in schedule,
having just been used for two weeks at the San
Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, another client of
LD Systems.
As load-in nears completion, a 40-foot-wide
set of tiered scaffolding is set up at the south
end of the stadium. The lighting department
will eventually take up almost a quarter of this
structure with an array of consoles, data distribution racks, motor control systems and at least
one refrigerator.
Programming (Day 10)
Programming for a show of this scale is a
daunting effort and is one of the driving factors behind the division of the three lighting
systems. As crew chief, Brace is responsible for
the day-to-day oversight of the entire lighting
crew and system. He also handles the operation
of the entire conventional lighting system on a
nightly basis.
LD Systems lead programmer John Dickson,
who plays an active role in the design process
of each year’s system and fixture specification,
leads the two-person team handling automated lighting programming. To his left sits Matt
Mills, touring LD for 3 Doors Down, who handles
operation of the perimeter lighting rig.
Dickson, whose career has included tours
with many notable acts, including ZZ Top and
Pat Green, made a major programming shift
this year, spec’ing the company’s brand new
MA Lighting grandMA consoles to control both
A yellow look for Brooks & Dunn
www.PLSN.com
6/1/07 9:50:58 AM
Brooks and Dunn
Toby Keith
Reba McEntire
Rob McKinley
Beyoncé and backup singers
The arena during a show
of the automated lighting rigs. With only four
nights available for preprogramming prior to
opening night, the speed and reliability of a
programming environment are imperatives on
which Dickson is always focused.With the growing channel counts of the rig, Dickson made a
strong argument to the company’s management during last fall’s LDI tradeshow, convincing them to make a capital expenditure on the
new consoles.
Says Dickson, “LD Systems was pioneering
the use of Compulite’s Animator desk back in
the day, and we eventually purchased Whole
Hog IIs due to client demand. With so many
designers requesting the grandMA, we felt it
was time to follow suit and purchased them in
November 2006. I specified the desk for rodeo
due to the overwhelming feedback I have been
given from colleagues regarding the flexibility
of the programming layout.”
Especially important, Dickson added,
“Striping time-code is a breeze. Editing your
time-code is as simple as dragging and dropping cues or button presses in an easy-to-read
window of events.”
With roughly four nights left before opening night, Dickson and Mills disappear from
the ongoing daytime preparations, arriving
at the stadium after dark each night and programming into the wee hours of the morning.
Starting with focus palettes on the first night of
programming, both of the programmers must
work quickly, setting positions that will hopefully offer them enough variations to keep the
shows fresh for 20 straight days. By the end of
the first night, the pair have these down, as
well as a time-coded multimedia show laid
in. Two to three techs, assisting the programmers, will move about the pitch-black stadium
throughout the night, working on uncooperative fixtures and attempting to minimize the
effects of dirt on the operation and output of
each fixture.
Night Two of programming includes the
time-coded national anthem sequence, while
the next night is dedicated to building punt
pages and generic looks for each show. Night
Four is their last chance to do touch-ups and
prepare a little bit for the next night’s show.
– Orson Welles
The Show (Day 15)
For the next 20 days, the goal of the entire
crew is to do things the same way every day.
Sometime before lunch, the techs arrive to fire
up the system, do basic fixture checks and fix
any problem fixtures from the night before.
Brace, Dickson and Mills arrive a little later
and, after a stop at catering, make their way to
FOH to meet with the LD who has arrived with
tonight’s artist. They go over the set list, taking
notes on color palettes and important cues for
each song.
Following the meeting, the programmers
will only have two to three hours to program
100.0706.28-29.indd 29
6/1/07 9:51:38 AM
PRODUCTION PROFILE
CREW
Equipment
Crew Chief/Lighting Designer/Conventional Programmer/Operator: Jim Brace
Co-Designer/Main Rig Programmer/
Operator: John Dickson
Perimeter Programmer/Operator:
Matt Mills
Automated Lighting Tech: Robert “Circus
Bob” Behounek
Conventional Lighting Tech: Brian “#8”
Stephenson
Stage Tech/Syncrolite Tech: Bobby “Bobby
D” Dominguez
Syncrolite Tech: Eric “Slappy” Braudaway
Tech: Fred Deci, Will Anglin
Rigging (Main Rig)
52
Tomcat 30”x26”x93” Pre-Rig Truss
9
30”x 26” 4-way Tomcat Fixed
Corners
16
30”x26” Tomcat Articulating
Corners
5
Tomcat 12”x12”x10’ Truss
20
CM 1-ton Chain Hoists
looks for a 60–90 minute concert, and they
will never see the looks with the house lights
out. Very similar to a large festival setup, guest
LDs can take a couple of approaches to working with the programmers, the simplest of
which are the most successful says Dickson.
“Designers who are experienced at calling shows in any environment are much more
successful than those who try to replicate the
looks from their own rig or who try to write
every one of their normal cues.”
Dickson says that people like Gayle
Haas (Reba McEntire), Larry Bolster (Brooks
& Dunn), Chris Stuba (ZZ Top), Pat Brennon
Rigging (Scenic Truss)
16
8
8
8
12”x12” Tomcat Articulating Corner
10
CM Chain Hoists
(Beyonce), Carter Fulghum (Gretchen Wilson), Eddie Connell (Toby Keith), Mike Frogge (Alan Jackson) and Will Anglin (Pat Green)
know how to pull off a great show at HLSR.
“When we see one of these guys walk up to
FOH after lunch, we know it’s going to be a good
show.They give us some basic input on each song.
They go over any crucial moments in the show.
Then they leave the rest up to us because we
know what the rig can and can’t do.”
By 5 o’clock, the programmers have set all
of their cues and retreated to the “bus” — the
Texans locker room retrofitted with road cases
stacked on their sides to emulate the bunks in
Main Rig (Conventional)
168
1kW PAR 64
8
Thomas 8-lites with Chroma-Q
Color Scrollers
24
Wybron 10” Color Scrollers
24
ACL Bars
4
ETC Sensor 24x2.4kW Sensor
Dimmer Packs
4
Leprecon CD-80 12x2.4kW
Dimmer Packs
Main Rig (Automated)
24
24
High End Systems Studio
Command 1200s
20
Coemar Parlite LEDs
18
High End Systems Trackspots
5
High End Systems Studio Color 575s
a tour bus — for a couple of hours of nap-time
prior to the show. One of the programmers
will return briefly to FOH around seven to fire
off the national anthem cue lists on the consoles. Shortly before 8:30 p.m., Brace, Dickson
and Mills take their places, hoping the cues
programmed for tonight’s show look decent
once the house lights are doused.
At 9 o’clock, the night’s show kicks off.
Each night brings a new performer to the
stage and with it a new set of looks. By 10:30
p.m., the show is over. The programmers
cover their consoles for the night and walk
across the football field of dirt, exiting the
High End Systems Studio
Spot 575s
Perimeter Rig (Automated)
20
High End Systems
Intellabeams 700HX
42
High End Systems Cyberlight
Turbos
24
Syncrolite 7k Series 2
12
Syncrolite 7k SS
Control & Data Distribution
2
MA Lighting grandMA Consoles
1
Leprecon LP-2000 Console
9
Doug Fleenor Designs DMX
Opto-Splitter
building to return a mere 12 hours later.
Clean-up (Day 35)
Over the course of 20 days, Brace, Dickson
and Mills will light shows for performers of all
types. Country, rock, hip-hop and Tejano music
will bring more than one million spectators
through the stadium. Rivaling the scale of all but
the largest touring productions, the rodeo is, by
all measures, one of the most challenging and
impressive shows around.
Phil Gilbert is a freelance lighting designer. He
can be reached at [email protected].
30 PLSN JUNE 2007
4
www.PLSN.com
100.0706.ADS.indd 31
5/30/07 11:11:49 PM
PRODUCT GALLERY
The Laser Light Show
By RichardCadena
T
hink of the most pure, intense colored light you’ve ever seen. Now
think of Pink Floyd. Do you see laser
beams yet?
Early laser light shows, popularized by
touring bands like Pink Floyd, Blue Öyster
Cult, REO Speedwagon and Neil Diamond,
made such an impression on the general
public that, for many years, all lighting
spectacles were commonly referred to as
“laser light shows,” even if there were no
real lasers in the show.
What is it about lasers that captures the
imagination of anyone who gazes at their
glowing beams? For starters, they produce
light with a single color with a well-defined
wavelength. There are multicolor laser, but
they produce multiple colors by combining lasers sources of different wavelengths, usually
red, green and blue, to produce other colors.
Second, lasers produce coherent light,
or light that is made up of electromagnetic waves that are in phase. This produces a highly collimated beam of light,
Distributor Web Address
Manufacturer
North America
Canada
Actor-Mate
Mexico
unlike a typical conventional fixture with
a diverging beam.
But if lasers are so special, why, then,
have they diminished in popularity over
the last couple of decades? Some concerts
were more well-known for their laser shows
than the music made by the band.
The answer lies in the economics and
logistics of high-powered gas lasers. The
old-style lasers were water cooled, very
fragile and required a licensed laser operator. Fortunately, today’s lasers are mostly
solid-state instruments that use laser diodes instead of gas-filled glass tubes. Many
of them are air-cooled and can be operated
remotely with a DMX512 controller. And if
they are under 5 milliwatts, they can be operated without a variance or license.
Lasers are a classic effect — like fog
machines and mirror balls — and with
today’s technology, it’s an effect that everyone can use. Take a look at these offerings from a wide range of manufacturers
and distributors.
Model Name
Laser Source
Scanners
Graphics
Magic Box Multi-Color
(LAD)
1 - 4.95 mW green & 1
- 4.95 mW red diode
X/Y rotation,
offset, gain
45 preset geometric patterns/
effects including liquid sky, tunnel and curtain effects; 16 color
combinations
DMX
stand
tive, au
(sou
Rocket Laser Red/
Green (LBP)
2 - 4.95 mW green &
2 - 4.95 mW red diodes
4 manual moving multidirectional heads
4 single beams create 15 beam
effects
DMX
stan
activ
mast
activ
Emerald Sky
2 - 4.9 mW green laser
diodes
ARC2500
2.5 watt full color
ARC5000
5 watt full color
ARC10000
10 watt full color
www.omnisistem.com
American DJ
www.americandj.com
Arctos Lasertechnik
www.laserdesignproductions.com
Scorpion™ Scan
(LG-60)
DMX
Stand
Cambridge 6800
scanners
www.chauvetlighting.com
www.Intellimix.com
Novelties.com.mx
10 mW 532 nm Fat
Beam™ green laser diode
Scorpion™ RG (LRG-55)
10 mW 532 nm Fat
and 10 mW 650 nm red
laser diode
Scorpion™ Array
(LG-40)
10 mW 532 nm Fat
Stepper motors
500 geometric patterns
w/variable size, speed
and offset
DMX,
activ
m
80 preset geometric patterns
Wi
linka
m
500 geometric patterns
w/variable size, speed and
offset and dual color
DMX,
act
w
Multiple laser sky effects
DMX,
act
w
Martin Professional
www.martin.com
RGB Laser 1.6
1.6 watt red, blue and
green laser diodes
Cambridge
galvos, 60 deg X
and Y
432 possible patterns and
effects
OmniSistem/Pulse
Lasers
www.omnisistem.com
Stinger Blue (LAD/LBP)
4.95 mW blue diode (also
available in high power)
X/Y rotation,
offset, gain
28 patterns w/hundreds of
variations
Production Design
International, Inc.
www.pdifx.com
TYP YAG Projector
500 mW to 6-watt YAG
laser diodes
Up to 11 Eye
Magic scanners
per projector
Supplied by Pangolin system
on separate computer
32 PLSN JUNE 2007
www.PLSN.com
Stand
Stand
Scorpion™ LGX
(LG-3355)
Chauvet
N/A
D
inclu
ILDA
DMX
stan
Direc
from
rns/
tuncolor
eam
s
rns
s
nd
s
nd
of
em
Arctos LaserTechnik
Arc 10000
American DJ Emerald Sky
OminSistem Stinger Blue
Martin RBG Laser 1.6
Chauvet Scorpion RG
Control
Features
Size
Weight
Retail Price
Comments
DMX512 (2 channels);
stand alone (sound active, auto); master/slave
(sound active, auto)
Green, red and yellow display w/2 laser diodes, one 4.95
mW green and one 4.95 mW red. Color mixing technology generates yellow effects.
7" H x 6" W x
16" L
5 lbs.
$998.00
Also available in red-only or green-only diodes
DMX512 (1 Channel);
stand alone (sound
active, auto, manual);
master/slave (sound
active, auto, manual)
Dual color performance w/ two 4.95 mW red and
two 4.95 mW green laser diodes. Laser heads can be
adjusted manually. Suitable for small disco/clubs and
mobile DJs.
8" H x 9" W x
10" L
8 lbs.
$898.00
Also available as a system supplied with bounce mirrors and in a choice of
red-only or green-only diodes
DMX512 (2 channels)
4 operation modes: DMX, auto, sound active & master/
slave; multiple "liquid sky" effects; built-in programs;
audio sensitivity; on/off
7" L x 12.5" W x
8" H
8 lbs.
Standard I.L.D.A. Input
Connector
Compact air-cooled integrated white light diode laser
projector that combines red, green and blue lasers for a
balanced full-color output of 2 watts.This complete system is I.L.D.A. compliant and includes the laser heads,
CTI scanners and drive electronics inside a hermetically
sealed chassis.
615 mm x 280
mm x 270 mm
40 kg
$46,760.00
5000 hours or 12 months warranty
Connector
projector that combines red, green and blue lasers for
a balanced full-color output of 4.5 watts.This complete
system is I.L.D.A. compliant and includes the laser
heads, CTI scanners and drive electronics inside a
hermetically sealed chassis.
615 mm x 280
mm x 270 mm
40 kg
$76,760.00
Connector
projector that combines red, green and blue lasers for
a balanced full-color output of 7.5 watts.This complete
system is I.L.D.A. compliant and includes the laser
heads, CTI scanners and drive electronics inside a
hermetically sealed chassis.
615 mm x 280
mm x 270 mm
55 kg
$105,000.00
DMX, automatic, sound
activation modes w/
master/slave
7 channels; 66-degree pan, 47-degree tilt; adjustable
speed of dynamic patterns; static pattern size and X/Y
positioning; sound-sensitivity control; switchable 110
V/230 V; no variance required.
10" x 10" x 5"
9.4 lbs. (4.3
kgs)
$379.99
Wireless remote,
linkable, auto, sound,
master/slave
Compact plastic case; sound sensitivity control; fan
cooled; wireless remote included; no variance required.
10.5" x 9.5" x 7"
8 lbs. (3.6
kgs)
$349.99
activation modes
w/master/slave
8 channels; 40+ dynamic patterns; 50 static patterns;
adjustable dynamic pattern speed and static pattern size; X/Y positioning adjustable; safety cover for
scanning mirrors; switchable 110 V/230 V; no variance
required.
10" x 10" x 5"
9.4 lbs. (4.2
kgs)
$529.99
activation modes
w/master/slave
2 channels; adjustable scan and speed; laser on/off;
multiple array configurations with optional mounting
brackets; fan-cooled; sound sensitivity control; no
variance required.
14" x 11" x 6"
7 lbs. (3.2
kgs)
$399.99
DMX, USB with
included PC software,
ILDA analog 25-pin
Full-color projector; 128 MB memory; stand-alone
mode; sealed housing and "smart" cooling w/no
aligment; laser show editing software included.
11.4" x 8" x7"
24.7 lbs.
$62,250.00
2 year or 3000 hours warranty
DMX512 (6 channels);
stand alone; sound
active
<4.95 mW DPSS Blue Laser Aerial Device and Laser
Beam Projector (LAD/LBP)
10" H x 8" W x
23" L
10 lbs.
$2,398.00
Also available in green,red, or yellow
Direct scanner control
from Pangolin system
or DMX512
Customizable options include up to 11 scanners, diffraction gratings, or effects; variety of YAG sources
10” H x 8” W x
23” L
10 lbs.
Custom - POA
One year warranty
No variance required due to proprietary Fat Beam™ Technology. Fully compliant
with IEC safety standards under Class IIIA.
www.PLSN.com
2007 JUNE PLSN 33
INTERVIEW
Hands Across the Water
Alexandra Mannix Returns to RSC
By RobLudwig
A scene from Oliver performed at Mannix’s school
“I really fell in love with lighting and its ability to affect and
change the mood of a scene.” — Alexandra Mannix
PLSN: How did you get involved in theatre? What
hooked you?
Alexandra: When I was in 6th grade, everyone in the
entire class was required to be a part of the play Oliver. I
was desperately afraid of performing in front of a huge
crowd, so our director suggested that I try stage crew instead. For that production, I was the light board operator
and I really fell in love with lighting and its ability to affect
and change the mood of a scene. Ever since, I have taken
every opportunity to continue with lighting.
Are you currently involved in the theatre program
at your school?
Yes, at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia.
Another scene from Oliver
S
ince the inception of the PLSN Interview, we’ve had the
pleasure of peeking into some of the greatest minds in our
industry and bringing their candid comments to you. All of
them had a tireless work ethic and tenacity at the beginning of
their careers. They worked at entry-level positions or did internships (yes — without compensation) for years before getting
their break. Through hard work, they made their own luck and
willed their way to where they are today. In this month’s interview,
we have the opportunity to introduce a high school student, Alexandra Mannix, who, at the age of 16, is already making a place
for herself in the theatre tech world. This summer, she will be
participating in her second summer with the Royal Shakespeare
Company (RSC) at Stratford-upon-Avon. To keep our hungry
minds satiated, she will be writing a blog on the PLSN Web site
during her six-week stay in England.
34 PLSN JUNE 2007
100.0706.34-35.indd 34
What can you tell us about the program?
Until quite recently, we were a very small theatre
program. In recent years, we’ve been picking it up, and we
refinished our theatre four or five years ago. We have three
shows a year — two plays and one large musical. Each play
has about 10 students in it, and each musical has about 30
students. There are usually a very small number of people
who work on the technical side of the theatre; we’re very
close, and between the five of us we manage most of the
lighting, sound and set.
Who are the other four students involved?
Don Tucker, Ashley Litzenburger, James Battle and
Cody Whisker.
What is your role?
I’m the lighting designer and stage manager.
Alexandra Mannix
That must keep you pretty busy. What is your schedule like?
Two months before a show, we work from about
3:45 p.m. until about 6:00 p.m. As we get closer to a show,
we work weekends from about 10 o’clock in the morning
until four o’clock in the afternoon, with about an hour for
lunch. During the day, we split the stage with the actors
who work in the afternoon, and then we work from about
7 p.m. until 10:30 p.m.
That’s a full weekend schedule — kind of like a job.
[Laughs]. It’s well worth it.
What other theatre experience do you have outside of
your school?
The summer after my freshmen year, I worked as an assistant stage manager at the People’s Light & Theatre Company in Pennsylvania for seven weeks. I was the assistant
stage manager for the run of The O’Connor Girls. I learned
a great deal about stage management, organization and
leadership from the wonderful stage manager there, Audrey
Brown. I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to work with such
a talented and kind group of people.
And last summer I worked as a lighting intern at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.
How did you get this opportunity?
My wonderful father called the RSC and asked if they
would consider having a high school intern from the U.S.
Michelle Pool, from their work relations program, was kind
enough to offer me a position on a trial basis to see if I
enjoyed it and if they could put up with me [laughs]. It
was a really good run.
www.PLSN.com
6/1/07 8:06:51 AM
“They make it so much fun, and they are so nice to me when I don’t
understand how to do something. They’ll take the time to explain it
67 times.” — Alexandra Mannix
What did you learn?
I learned tons. I can’t imagine fitting so
much into two weeks
Is the equipment similar to what you
were used to or was it different?
Many of the instruments were exactly
the same — an ETC Source Four here is the
same as a Source Four there. However, as
most of my lighting experience has been
at my high school, the Royal Shakespeare
Theatre had many new and expensive instruments that I had not seen before. They
also had a Stand lighting board, which,
at first, seemed quite different from the
ETC board we have at my school. But with
some explanation, I found the two were
actually quite similar. At the RST, they used
normal three-pin Edison plugs, whereas at
my school we use three-pin stage plugs.
I found that it was much easier to work
with the Edison plugs, as we could plug
a fog machine, for example, directly into
DMX without having to use a converter.
Was it a challenge to keep up there?
I felt relatively prepared. I think a lot of
the things I didn’t understand were because
I was severely inexperienced, but people
were always willing to explain things to me
to help me get the hang of it.
What did you bring back from the
experience?
I came back with a better understanding of lighting. Having spent some time on
headset watching shows — I would watch
shows at night and they would let me listen in on headset — I learned more about
stage managing, calling cues and keeping
everything in order.
That was a two-week internship. I understand you’ll be going back.
Yes. I’ll be returning this summer for
six weeks.
Alexandra Mannix worked as a light board op on her school’s production of Oliver
What are you expecting this
summer?
I’m going into this blind. I
expect I will be doing some focusing, again. If I get really lucky,
maybe I’ll get to do a little programming during a rehearsal.
And this time, you’ll be writing a blog on the PLSN Web
site, aren’t you?
Yes. I’m so excited; the people
over there are so wonderful and
so nice. They make it so much fun,
and they are so nice to me when I
don’t understand how to do something.They’ll
take the time to explain it 67 times. [Laughs].
Alexandra adjusts some costumes pre-show.
What are you planning to write about in
your blog?
I was thinking about writing about the
things I pick up on, or about some of the
people I work with — sort of a “What I learned
today.”
Would you recommend an internship to
other students?
Absolutely. I’ve never run across a theatre group that is mean or nasty, and the
people are usually really kind, considerate
and really wonderful. You get so much out of
the experience that it’s definitely worth it.
What are you going to do when you get
back?
I probably won’t be back until the beginning of August, so I’ll get my work done
and get prepared for school.
Do you have theatre classes in school?
We don’t have classes, but you can take
theatre instead of a sport, so they set aside
two hours a day, five days a week.
How do you go about designing and
building cues for your productions?
In the beginning, I’ll read the script and
write down which scenes are most important and how I feel the lighting should look
for that scene to influence the mood of the
scene. I have ETC Express offline editor on
my computer, so I usually start by making
a simple cue structure with a general wash
for certain scenes and specials for other
scenes. Then, I’ll upload that onto our lighting board during rehearsals and fix things
until I really like it
Do you have full creative freedom?
Yes. I’m so grateful to my director and
technical director because they sort of let
me roam free. Of course, they are there if I
have any questions, or if I need advice about
how a look works for a certain scene.
You’ve been in the theatre quite a bit in
your young career.
I try to be. I really love it.
Is this something you’d like to pursue as a
career?
I hope so — if I’m lucky enough.
www.PLSN.com
100.0706.34-35.indd 35
What was your main focus there?
I spent a lot of time sitting with lighting designers while they were writing
cues, or fixing cues, during rehearsal. The
two designers I worked with were very
lovely people, and they took the time to
explain why they had chosen to use certain lighting effects in specific scenes,
how they focused certain lights, or how
they got certain lighting effects. It was really interesting to hear how they thought
out what they were going to do — how
they decided what they were going to do
with the lighting — where they started
and how they got to the finished product. As you’d expect, I ended up doing a
lot of the little work, like going up to the
catwalk to fix a light. It was great because
I learned about some lighting instruments
that I had never used before, and I learned
a little bit of programming.
2007 JUNE PLSN 35
6/1/07 8:07:20 AM
PRODUCTION PROFILE
Getting a True
Taste of Chaos
Chaos’ crew tries to keep it fast, cheap and under control
By Bryan Reesman
T
he third annual A Taste of Chaos tour
certainly lives up to its name for its hardworking crew. With eight screamo/posthardcore bands, six audio people and four
lighting crew, plus a truncated load-in time
after the first few shows, over its two-month
cross-country trek, the growing event has become a test of speed and endurance for this
well-oiled touring machine. This year, it is also
a challenge for Chaos crew chief Tommy Green,
and 30 Seconds to Mars lighting director Rob
Smith to allow the show to build up in intensity
for a big visual payoff by night’s end. It’s a true
lesson in the principle of “less is more.”
When PLSN dropped in to visit the tour
at Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York,
things were running smoothly. Every show
had been opening with a 15- to 20-minute
set from a local band (a contest winner sponsored by Ernie Ball), followed by 30- to 35minute sets from Evaline, Aiden and Chiodos,
40-minute sets from Sense Fail and Saosin,
and 55- to 60-minute sets from 30 Seconds To
Mars and headliners The Used. With load-ins
starting around noon, doors opening around
4:30 p.m., the first band often on by 5:00 and
a frequent curfew time of 11:00, things had
been rolling fast and furiously.
A big challenge was the set changes, with
15 minutes, at most, between bands, some of
whom wanted big sets. “The specific layout we
have for all of the other bands — aside from
The Used and 30 Seconds To Mars — are trusses
just staying in a flat position,” says Green, who
serves as the lighting director for The Used, and
who has worked previously with Metallica, Eric
Clapton, Sting and John Mellencamp.“For all the
other bands, it’s solid colors, no strobes — just
something so it builds up a little bit. We get on
to Saosin and Senses Fail
and throw a little more
color and strobes in there,
mix them up. Then, when
we get to 30 Seconds To
Mars and The Used, it’s the
full package, just blowing
every thing up.”
With all the excitement and flashiness
generated by the show, one might think that
Green, Smith and crewmates Jim Frederickson and Josh Wagner had plenty of lights to
play with, but in fact, the rig had only approximately 50. “They’re all moving lights,” remarks
Green.“If you look at the way it’s set up, as few
lights as there are, it actually looks very big
when you actually fire it up. It looks like a massive rig compared to some of these 100- to
150-light rigs you see sometimes.”
“You need to choose what you do with
them wisely,” observes Smith, also the lighting designer for Saosin, who has previously
worked with Journey, Lionel Richie, Steely Dan
and the Boston Pops and Boston Symphony
Orchestra. “Anybody can take 250 moving
lights, point them out at the audience, and everybody will go, ‘Wow!’ If you can do that with
for 40 or 50 lights, now you’re accomplishing
something. That’s the key to it all.”
With its limited budget, because of its low
ticket prices, and even with The Used and 30
Seconds To Mars splitting the cost of the floor
lighting package that was not in the original
bid, the lighting crew is working with modest
but effective means. Active on the trusses are
11 Robe ColorSpot 1200s, 22 High End Systems Studio Beams, 18 Martin Atomic 3000
strobes, approximately 12 LED PARs, six Lekos
The Used
36 PLSN JUNE 2007
www.PLSN.com
Rob Smith (left) and Tommy Green
and four Moles. Specific to the two main acts
are eight Color Kinetics Color Blasts and 10
Robe Color Spot 575s for the floor. Two Reel
EFX DF-50 hazers are used for atmosphere.
While The Used have done moody videos
and 30 Seconds To Mars indulges in flashier
clips, they reverse those principles in concert.
Green observes that The Used want a big,
blown-out show that draws attention to them
and is different from what they have done in
the past. There are lots of big, bright spotlights
employed for The Used, notes Smith, while
“The 30 Seconds To Mars guys are into moody,
dark, shadowy-type looks,” he says.
“Lots of big, bright spotlights for The Used,”
adds Smith.“For half the songs for 30 Seconds, I
don’t use the spotlight. And if I do, there’s usually a Lee 180 dark blue or dark purple in it so
you can barely even see it. The Used have a gag
at the beginning with the kabuki drop, and we
throw a gobo up with their logo, so everybody
screams and yells at the top of their show.”While
The Used set starts with shadows and silhouettes, it soon explodes into a full-on rock show.
“For 30 Seconds and The Used, we also
move the trusses to change the dimension
a little bit,” says Green. “For 30 Seconds, we’ll
actually drop the trusses down so they’re angled at 45 degrees. For The Used, it will start
flat and low, then it will pick up and fly out,
then back down again, and then the center
will pop and the two ends will come down.
There is probably a total of five or six different positions that we play with to give it a
little dimension and to see it build up more.”
The kabuki drop is a black shark-tooth
scrim, about 24 feet by 40 feet, that flies in on
the downstage edge. Three ETC Source Four
PARs light up Quinn (stage right guitar player),
Jeph (bass player) and Bert (lead singer), with
a couple of PARs focused on the drummer
Dan.“We do a little shadow work on the scrim
prior to it dropping,” says Green. “Then there’s
the big hit, the scrim drops, then everything
opens up. It’s amazing how inexpensive that
is and how much effect it has.”
“We’ve got a hand rheostat out in front of
house,” adds Smith. “We wondered how we
could get dimmer control all the way in front of
IN
The Used
house for this Leko, so we went to Home Depot
and bought a hand dimmer. That hand dimmer
and an $18 steel gobo probably gets the biggest reaction out of the audience — more than
thousands of dollars of other gear could.”
“We had strobes in the air, and they added
four strobes on the ground,” says Green. “For
The Used, we have four spines. There are four
pipes with what looks like a ribcage hanging
off of each one, and on top of the ribcage is a
fan. There’s a lamp inside the fan with red and
yellow fabric. When the fan kicks in the fabric shoots up, and from a distance it looks like
flames. It’s inexpensive and works well.”
The members of 30 Seconds To Mars imported Chinese lanterns from England for
their show, twelve of which appear onstage.
“Again, it’s a real simple set up,” remarks Green.
“It’s just 60-watt incandescent light bulbs
with a mogul base hanging down inside it. It
lights up, the red fabric glows, and you see a
Chinese lantern. The kids just love it.”
The Chaos rigging package is also simple:
a cable bridge with three active trusses on the
stage and one downstage, with the stage being
anywhere between from four to six feet off the
ground. A 40-foot turntable allows one band to
set up while another is performing.
The lights are being run from a Martin
Maxxyz console with a wing attached. Green
and Smith praise its creators, who they say labor
hard to fix any problems.“We did have one small
snafu during one show where it seemed to lock
up, but we quickly jumped over to our spare
and nobody was the wiser,” recalls Smith. “We
were all thankful for that. It’s like any of these
new consoles that are coming out now. They
have software revisions coming almost daily.”
“They’re very quick about it, and if you call
up one of the Maxxyz guys with problems, in
10 minutes time you can download revised
software from their FTP site and literally have
the problem fixed,” says Green. “They’re really
quick to make it work. I’ve been using a Maxxyz
console now for three years, and they’ve been
really, really good service-wise. I had a lot of
problems at the beginning, but it’s smoothed
out and become very dependable. I love programming on it because it’s quick and easy. If
you haven’t ever touched a Maxxyz before, you
can learn how to program it in 20 minutes.”
Such programming proficiency certainly
has helped in dealing with the two main Chaos
acts. Smith and Green estimate that there are
probably around 2,500 cues between them. “It’s
nice to spread that out,” says Smith, “because
when it’s one guy who has to deal with all of that,
it’s a whole lot of stuff to try to keep your head
wrapped around, because you have to have the
songs memorized to a point where you know
exactly when everything happens.” At the same
time, the LDs have worked with the bands to
evolve and alter their shows to suit their individual
tastes. Fredrickson handles the Ernie Ball winners
and Chiodos, Wagner works Evaline and Aiden,
Smith tackles Saosin and 30 Seconds To Mars, and
Green takes on Senses Fail and The Used.
Green acknowledges that it’s a big challenge to give each group a different look with
the same lights. At the end of the day, they
have managed to pull it off working with an
economy of means. Maximizing the potential in a minimum amount of gear certainly
comes from years of experience. Luckily, the
tour had a veteran designer and creative LDs
willing to give them just that.
www.PLSN.com
2007 JUNE PLSN 37
VITAL STATS
PRECISE CORPORATE STAGING
Recent Company Highlights:
Purchase of a 34,000-square-foot
building in Tempe and the opening of the
Atlanta-area office in April 2006.
Degrees of Separation:
President David L. Stern was a keyboard
tech for Bon Jovi for five years.
PCS work for the LPL National Conference
Who:
Precise Corporate Staging, LLC
What:
Supplies equipment and crew for
corporate events. PCS also has an entertainment division which cross-rents
equipment to other companies for tours,
in addition to supplying sound, video
and lighting for regional concerts.
Motto:
When:
Alice Cooper
“Things happen for a reason.”
Founded July 4, 2000
Full-Time Employees:
18
Services Provided:
Lighting, truss, motors, audio systems,
video equipment, projection, staging services and LEDs.
Where:
Current Clients:
HQ is in Tempe, Ariz., with an additional
office in Marietta, Ga.
Alice Cooper, LPL Financial, and Hootie
and the Blowfish.
Alice Cooper, one of Precise Corporate Staging’s clients
A PCS room staging, for Arends Productions
FOH at a corporate event
Alice Cooper’s Christmas Pudding
FOH at a corporate event
38 PLSN JUNE 2007
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5/30/07 11:08:14 PM
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5/30/07 11:12:29 PM
ALL PRODUCTION ALL THE TIME
100.0706.ADS.indd 40
5/30/07 11:12:59 PM
Hippotizer V3 Launches
LONDON — Hippotizer V3 media server started shipping May 9. The product launch followed
sharply on the heels of worldwide beta testing on
productions, including London’s Theatre de Complicité, New York’s Deuce on Broadway and the TPI
Awards in London, where a network of three Hippo
V3s provided both video and audio to the entire
award ceremony. V3 also featured in the World Premiere of Frobisher at the Calgary Opera and Hard
Dance Awards 2007 in London. Upcoming productions to be served by Hippotizer V3 include Dancing With The Stars on ABC TV, and five networked
V3 Hippotizers enhanced the 2007 Eurovision
Song Contest in Helsinki, broadcast live to an audience of over 600 million.
Rather than acting as a DMX fixture following a
console, the Hippotizer V3 includes on-board, timeline-based programming and control triggered from
all major industry protocols. Hippotizer V3 is designed
to manage media file functions including encoding,
upload, conversion, naming and storage, even during
programming or the show. Hippotizer V3 features HippoNet™, which gives complete control and overview
of a Hippotizer network from any Hippotizer, with
drag-and-drop of media to and from any other machine. (Note: An optional accessory software module,
“ZooKeeper,” allows any Hippotizer, PC, Mac or laptop
to monitor and control an entire HippoNet.)
Hippotizer V3 features a “Drag and Drop” userdefinable interface that allows complete setup
and adjustment of control center, monitors and
outputs — no external applications needed, and
no shut down or reboot is required.
Hippotizer V3 can make updates and changes
of presets by copying values from one preset to
another and by allowing linked presets for global
changes in one swoop.
Other applications soon to be released include
a Hippotizer Effects Editor and ZooKeeper Offline
Programmer. Effects Editor allows extensive effects
editing capability. Offline Programmer runs on any
A nostalgic Elton John image gazes out over the Garden.
recent laptop PC or Mac. Its programming capability is only limited by the capacity of the computer
running it.
Hippotizer V3 also includes upgrades to many
of Hippotizer’s other features: video playback and
real-time rendering, frame blended slow-motion,
soft-edge blending, keystone and color correction,
sdi input and audio capability and DMX pixel-mapping. Hippotizer V3 is available in true 1080i/720p
(HD) and standard definition (stage) dual-output
versions.
Video Canopy Bathes
The Place in HD
A nature scene on the show canopy
BEIJING — Medialon Show Manager is providing automatic show control for a project in the central business district
of Beijing, which consists of a nearly 65,000-square-foot video
canopy with 14.5 million LEDs. Raised 82 feet above floor level,
the canopy covers an open circulation area forming part of a
new building development, “The Place.” The canopy is used at
night and has a light background to allow it to act as a surface
for special lighting effects when it is not showing images. In addition, a large vertical LED screen is used conventionally during
the day and shares the same source and processing system.
The display was engineered by Opto Tech Corporation of
Taiwan with Electrosonic Ltd., U.K., the project integrator. Medialon Show Manager controls a
Inside...
Sugababes Get Sweet Video
been used in my recent
designs. I love the way I
can use them architecturally to define the shape of
sets, truss, etc.”
The lighting was supplied by Neg Earth, and the
show was programmed
and controlled using a Flying Pig Systems Wholehog
III and a Catalyst.
St. George and
45 the Projector
E/T/C UK created a hi-tech garnish for a city’s
800th anniversary, and the re-opening of St.
George’s Hall.
Breakthrough
48 Moments at NAB
Wherein we track how video and lighting
got so entangled.
The Sugababes in concert
LONDON — The Sugababes recently toured
numerous venues in the U.K. and Ireland for
their “Overloaded” greatest hits tour. Lighting
designer Vince Foster created a modern feel
for the show with a versatile rig that included
a mixture of Martin fixtures and a chevronshaped back wall constructed from 74 PixelLine 1044s.
Foster explains, “The main function of the
PixelLines on this tour was to form a video wall
behind the band. PixelLines have consistently
www.PLSN.com
2007 JUNE PLSN
41
PC
NEWS
Aussie Pinks Tour U.K. with Reducible Screens and Video
BRADFORD, UK — A Radical Lighting
RADlite NG1 digital media server is in action on the current Australian Pink Floyd
U.K. arena tour. The tour has been completely redesigned for its 2007 run.
RADlite is the latest development in
the all-important video and visuals element of the band’s show. It’s being used
for soft-edging and masking images,
movies and effects being projected onto
a 60-foot-wide upstage arched surface
with a 5 meter diameter circular truss
hung in front of it.
Lighting director Phil White and show
projectionist Chris Gadd were instrumental in getting RADlite specified for the tour,
having used the system before and knowing
that lighting and video supplier Entec has
also invested in RADlite systems.
Visuals are looked after during the
show by Gadd, along with White and video aficionado Richard Hutton. These three
are joined by super-tech Simon “Boff ”
Howarth, another Entec regular, and Danny Spratt.
Lighting has again been designed
by Dave Hill, who again raised the production values with the addition of the
upstage arch, echoing one of the classic
structural fundamentals from Pink Floyd’s
seminal Pulse tour in 1994.
All video content for the Australian
Pink Floyd’s three-hour show is produced
by Damian Darlington and Bryan Kolup-
ski. This is streamed
into the RADlite via
a capture card and
then edge-blended
in the system to create the 60-foot wide
image needed to
fill the arch-shaped
screen with projections from two Christie LX100 projectors.
The
long-term
plan is to move storage of all the video
content and sources
over to the RADlite, to allow control from
lighting console, as the time allows in
Australian Pink Floyd in concert
their hectic touring schedule.
Video is projected onto the middle of
the trussing circle. When circle-only images are required, Gadd manually drops in
the RADlite mask that blacks out anything
running across the arch.
The arched projection surface consists
of three sections, the center strip of which
can be removed, shrinking the whole
thing by 8 feet for smaller stages; and in
other situations, they might use only one
projector. When this happens, they have
changed the screen resolution size in RADlite, and the images automatically fit the
different size and throw distances, “One
click and it’s done,” enthuses Gadd.
The masks were created using a picture editor. There are six different arch
configurations in total, all reflecting
slightly different variations of the show
and stage layout.
This marks the third Pink Floyd association for Radical Lighting. They have
also supplied a PixelDrive system for another tribute band, Off The Wall, and their
PixelDrive product was featured during
the real Pink Floyd’s Live8 performance in
London.
Gepco
Adds
New York
Branch
DES PLAINES, IL — Gepco International, an audio and video cable
manufacturer, has added a New York
branch to better serve its customers
in the northeast region.
The 5,000-square-foot space is
located in Chestnut Ridge, New York
— about 30 miles north of Manhattan — and will stock all of Gepco’s
current cabling and connectivity
solutions as well as its distributed
lines. In addition to being able to
fulfill and ship orders throughout
the Northeast, the facility will offer
a “will call” area for customers looking to pick up materials on-site.
“With New York being an entertainment and broadcast hub,
we felt it was critical for Gepco to
have a presence there,” said Gepco
founder and CEO/CTO Gary Geppert.
“Customer service is a top priority for Gepco, and we feel this new
location will help us better serve
our clients in the area and facilitate
development of new business relationships.”
42
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6/1/07 12:23:30 PM
PC
NEWS
Venetian Video Blinds for Prophets
Lostprophet
HERTFORDSHIRE, UK
— Lighting and visual
designers Dan Hardiman
and Dave Farmer of THC
Design added fast-moving visual coherence
and plenty of optical energy to the Lostprophet’s
short U.K. arena tour.
A major element
of this was five columns of 33-string Barco
MiSTRIP supplied by
XL Video. These were
specified by Hardiman,
who had been wanting
to introduce video to the band’s show for
some time. THC has been involved with the
Lostprophet’s stage visuals throughout the
Liberation Transmission world tour, which is
now drawing to a close.
“I wanted something new and exciting
for the arena section of the tour — and video
was definitely the way to go,” says Hardiman.
He and Farmer have worked with XL on a
number of artists including UB40, Will Young,
The Doves and others.
XL’s project managers Phil Mercer and Jo
Beirne comment, “THC has an innovative approach to video and visuals in general. They
are always fun and interesting to work with
— there’s never a dull moment — and it was
great to collaborate again!”
The six MiSTRIP columns measured 5 feet
wide with a 20-foot drop, and were rigged
right upstage on their own dedicated truss
(each column weighed in at 750 kgs). They
were concealed behind cloth banners until the
last six numbers of the set when the banners
were kabuki-dropped to reveal the MiSTRIPs.
Hardiman explains how he was initially
attracted to the MiSTRIP because of its industrial appearance when not illuminated. He was
particularly keen to have a surface that looked
more interesting than “a load of pixels!”
XL provided THC with a sample of MiSTRIP for experimentation, after which Hardiman knew his concept would work.
The stage starts off as a white box, and
as the show progresses, various bits of
drapes are peeled away to reveal different
layers, finishing with the video towers. By
leaving it until the end, and by judiciously
limiting the choice of source material, the
impact is greater.
Hardiman created special custom content for the show, all of which is stored
on and played back via an Mbox Extreme
v2.0 digital media server. Lead singer Ian
Watkins and others in the band take an active interest in the look of the show and
they took Hardiman’s suggestions for material, while giving him a few pointers of
their own. The Mbox was triggered via the
WholeHog III lighting console running the
show operated by Stuart Farrell.
Once revealed, when not in use, the
MiSTRIP was also lit, offering up its own
distinctive textured surface onstage,
which Hardiman describes as similar to a
Venetian blind.
The video has been a huge success
with the Lostprophets and their audience,
so it should figure prominently in future
live work.
XL Video also supplied screen and LED
technician Pieter Laleman to look after the
MiSTRIP. Lighting equipment was supplied
by PRG and sound by SSE.
Truck Display
Clears the
Fences
KISSIMMEE, FL — Impact Video’s 22feet high by 30-feet wide Daktronics ProStar Illuminator was on hand at Disney’s
Wide World Of Sports Complex in Kissimmee, Fla. to enhance the Tampa Bay Devil
Rays three game series against the Texas
Rangers May 15–17, 2007. The Illuminator
is the largest truck-mounted LED Display in
North America.
The Devil Rays production team was
able to take advantage of the Illuminator’s
full on-board control room to produce the
video board show. Fully equipped with
preview monitoring and 8-input switching
capability, the Devil Rays were able to seamlessly replicate their in-house production
for a temporary installation complete with
ESPN broadcast feed, live cameras, instant
replay, video rolls and player statistics.
The Illuminator parked just beyond center field.
44
PLSN JUNE 2007
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5/30/07 11:28:55 PM
Two Weeks Needed for 800-Year Show
LIVERPOOL, UK — E/T/C UK designed and
produced a “son et lumière” show, specially
commissioned by Liverpool Culture Company,
to help celebrate the reopening of the City’s
landmark St. George’s Hall building.
The show, entitled 800 Light Years, uses
E/T/C’s new OnlyView control platform and ran
eight HD Christie S20+ video projectors, montaged together to produce a 64-meter-wide
by 14-meter-tall image onto the rear face of St.
George’s Hall in central Liverpool.
Designed by Harvey Lonsdale Elmes and
originally opened in 1856, St. George’s Hall was
reopened at the end of April by the Prince of
Wales, following a £23 million refurbishment.
In two weeks, E/T/C UK’s Ross Ashton and
Paul Chatfield researched, sourced and created all the video material, visuals and custom
artwork needed for the 25-minute show, while
Karen Monid compiled and recorded a special
accompanying music track.
Taking on this dual role enabled E/T/C to
accelerate the whole creative process, with visuals and sound working in tandem on blocks
of the story. “It was a great exercise in inter-departmental teamwork,” explains Ross Ashton.
2007 marks Liverpool’s 800th anniversary.
The show’s narrative — a collaboration between Jon Corner and Andrew Sherlock of River Media and the LCC Events team — highlights
some of the individuals, stories and events that
have shaped Liverpool’s colorful history.
LCC’s event manager, Kirstie Blakeman, explains, “We wanted to produce an event that
was entertaining, informative and that also had
a great sense of spectacle. Monumental projection ticks all the boxes, so it was an obvious
choice.”
Ashton comments that in addition to the
short timescale, the other challenge was to find
a workable physical location for the projectors.
At the back of St. George’s Hall is St.
George’s Gardens, a memorial area of mature
trees, shrubs and carefully tended flowerbeds — not ideal for a show production area.
The tree line meant the projectors had to be
located only 23 meters from the building, im-
mediately behind which the ground drops
away steeply by four meters.
Two towers were constructed to house
projectors, lighting and sound. The Christie’s are
fitted with 1.4 lenses and run as four doublestacked pairs for optimum brightness. They
were also crossed over, angled at 25 degrees,
to squeeze every last centimeter of additional
throw out of the beam paths.
This produced severe keystoning and
image distortion, corrected in the OnlyView computer, which also does all the
edge blending to produce the single image. OnlyView also allowed complex animations and window-in-window effects
to be applied within the main projections.
Some sequences — like the
industrial revolution and
the Blitz — particularly lent
themselves to this type of
treatment.
E/T/C’s site crew was run by
their head of video, Andy Joyes. Karen Monid was assistant
programmer, and they were
joined by Jack Middlebrook,
Briony Margets and Mark
Hughes. E/T/C also worked
closely with lighting suppliers
Audile, who lit other aspects
of the building that were not
part of the projections.
A scene from 800 Light Years
Video Canopy
Bathes The
Place in HD
continued from page 41
complement of Electrosonic equipment, including five MS9300 High Definition video
players and two VECTOR image processors
that drive the vast video canopy.
The whole canopy can be considered as an array of five XGA-equivalent
displays working as one single display. It
can show eight simultaneous video feeds
derived from local cameras, a local video
editing suite, off-air and even gaming
devices and phone cameras. It can also
show XGA images from local computer
sources.
For the canopy’s “Big Show,” the highest possible image quality is achieved via
five synchronized HD sources. Shows are
developed as special attractions running
at set times.
Medialon also controls a large, multichannel audio system, based on LCS disc
recorders and LCS digital mixing, and dynamic lighting controlled by a PEAR2004
console. All devices in the system are on
a Gigabit Ethernet network.
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6/1/07 8:15:00 AM
PC
NEWPRODUCTS
JobSite Systems Cat5 Balun Transformers
Wireworks AV2000 Multimedia Cabling
JobSite Systems’ Cat5 Balun
Transformers enable extended
cable runs of various audio/
video signals via Cat5 wire in
place of more costly and cumbersome coaxial cables. The
all-metal chassis and passive
circuitry in JobSite Cat5 Balun
Transformers are easily located
in structured wiring cabinets,
equipment racks and behind
connected components. Because their circuitry is passive,
no AC or DC electrical connection is required. Cat5 Balun
Transformers pairs do not require
source-end/receivingend-designation, which simplifies ordering and installation. Normally used in pairs, each
Cat-5 Balun Transformer model is designed with a specific application in mind, i.e., analog
audio, digital audio composite video, S-video, cable TV, component video and digital audio,
S-video and analog audio, and VGA signal distribution. All the Cat5 Balun Transformer devices feature rugged construction and a limited, 10-year warranty.
Wireworks’ AV2000 MultiMedia Cabling connects multimedia systems through one plug in, offering a practical,
time- and cost-efficient solution for both the installer and
end-user. The AV2000 MultiMedia Cabling combines audio,
video and data control signals through a hybrid connector
that replaces multiple tails and connectors. AV2000 allows
each system to match specific equipment requirements. Using three components — the Access Point, the Umbilical and
the Link — the AV2000 can be easily integrated and can simplify every multimedia installation. The AV2000 Access Point
can be premounted on gang, rack, wall or floorbox panels and terminated with individual
cables, providing a drop-in solution for the installer. Access Points can be easily retrofitted
into existing systems.
JobSite Systems • 818.991.0360 • www.jobsitesystems.com
Broadcast Pix Slate
Switcher V6.0
Broadcast Pix Slate Switcher version
6.0 software for its line of Slate switchers adds support of QuickTime, DV and
MPEG clips and a customizable multiview for any size monitor, including huge
wall-mounted displays. Up to 20 moving
monitors can be sized and arranged, and
clocks, countdowns and content libraries can be added for unprecedented
feedback. Version 6 also adds optional
audio mixer control with MIDI, virtual
set capabilities, secondary outputs with
keys, and connection of the on air CG to
a database. Broadcast Pix also released
auto aspect ratio management and HD
inputs and outputs to the Slate line. AutoAspect software uniquely enables 16:9
and 4:3 inputs, clips and graphics to be
used interchangeably and mixed together in the same live production, while maintaining
the native aspect ratio of each element rather than stretching them.
Broadcast Pix • 781.221.2144 • www.broadcastpix.com
Wireworks • 323.582.2650 • www.wireworks.com
360 Systems Image Server MAXX
360 Systems’ Image Server MAXX is a video server that offers an expanded set of
advanced features most often requested by churches, broadcasters and cable networks.
These include: fast FTP transfers to other
servers, non-linear editors and network-attached storage; embedded audio; Remote
Workstation software for operation from
PCs; As-Run logs, Sony IMX® (D10) file compatibility, and improved operation with MXF
files. It maintains traditional video standards
with baseband composite video and SDI
ports. An input frame-synchronizer allows
“wild” sources from tape or satellite to be recorded. New time-stamps create accurate AsRun logs for reconciliation of playlists. The server’s internal RAID array provides MAXX with
up to 170 hours of storage.
360 Systems • 818.991.0360 • www.360systems.com
TV One 1T-C2-520 Up-Converter
TV One’s new 1T-C2-520
converts DVI-D 720p or 1080i
HD signals to HD-SDI, or analog YPbPr or RGBHV to HD-SDI.
Since it also converts standard
analog YUV signals at 525i or
625i to SD-SDI, it can also convert Beta to SDI. Since the 1T-C2-520 doesn’t perform scaling,
a chart is provided to assist in selecting the exact vertical input rates. This will ensure that
the output resolution and vertical rate match the input signal exactly. It can also handle
serial digital video input up to 1.485 Gbits/sec. The 1T-C2-520 is housed in a desktop metal
case and an optional single/dual rackmount kit is available. It can be operated from the
front panel or an RS-232 connection.
TV One • 800.721.4044 • www.tvone.com
46 PLSN JUNE 2007
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www.PLSN.com
6/1/07 8:18:26 AM
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5/30/07 11:14:06 PM
PC
VIDEO WORLD
NAB and the
Breakthrough Moments
Video didn’t spring fully-formed from a media server…
By PaulBerliner
[For those of us who are new to the video world by
way of lighting, the entire history of the development
of media servers, non-linear editing, and all the tools
of the video trade are as much of a mystery as the
plethora of video formats. To those of you who are
new to the lighting world by way of the video world,
the entire lack of knowledge about these things from
the lighting side is as much of a mystery as DMX512. In
this article, Paul Berliner bridges the gap for us. - ed.]
T
his year marked my 28th NAB, and as
Rutger Hauer said to Harrison Ford in
the closing scenes of Blade Runner, “I’ve
seen things you people wouldn’t believe.”
Perhaps most astonishing, over the years at
the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention, I’ve witnessed several major
points where the industry has shifted in an
entirely new direction. Looking back with a
28-year perspective, I now realize the importance of those breakthroughs — even though
I might not have recognized them as such at
the time.
With NAB 2007 behind us, we’re in the
midst of yet another shift, and this one’s a
dandy.
From Demo Dog to Reporter
VW
My role at NAB has been varied and rich.
I’ve been a demo dog for numerous equipment manufacturers, including Ampex, Pinnacle, NVision, Omneon and Ross, hawking
everything from linear editors to video production switchers. I’ve written and produced
hourly stage shows, such as those for Accom
— where we demonstrated the wonders of
virtual sets and green screen technology. I’ve
been Mr. Job Hunter, seeking out new technical writing clients (and after all, where else
but NAB can a video contractor make 300
cold calls to the entire industry in four days).
I’ve even edited a daily NAB newsletter for
the Sony sales staff, with a team of reporters
scoping out the competition. And this year
was yet another new experience, with the
task of trying to resolve (and recommend)
a complex HD workflow — from acquisition
through non-linear post to playout. Amid a
sea of native resolutions, codecs, formats,
bit-rates and color spaces, this was one of
the most confusing (yet eye-opening) treasure hunts yet.
When Video Was Analog, and
Life Was Good
100.0706.48.indd 48
Amazing Points of Change
VW
From my perspective, there are a few clear
breakthrough points where the industry took
a collective gasp. Based on single product introductions, there are points at NAB at which
technology took a quantum leap forward and
abruptly changed the ways in which we worked.
True, I just missed the introduction of videotape
recording (the Ampex VR-1000) at the 1956
NAB in Chicago, but here’s my list anyway:
• Ampex VPR-2 and AST (NAB 1977). With
the introduction of the Ampex VPR-1 in
1976, the industry left quadraplex recording behind and adopted the simplicity of
open-reel 1-inch helical-scan recording. But
when Ampex introduced the VPR-2 and AST
VW
Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, NAB was a relatively small trade show that alternated between Dallas and Las Vegas. Yes, there was
one lonely year in Atlanta, and (way before
my time), conventions in Chicago and Washington D.C. Today, based on its sheer size,
Vegas is the only venue that can handle
100,000 attendees.
Back then, the show floor consisted of a
few hundred booths, dominated by four giants — Ampex, RCA, Grass Valley and Sony.
Ampex 2-inch quadraplex VTRs were king,
48 PLSN JUNE 2007
such as the tank-like AVR series. There were
no finer vidicon (tube) cameras than the TK
series by RCA. Grass Valley’s analog production switchers sold like hotcakes to every
call letter station, and Sony’s 3/4” U-Matic
cassette recorders were ubiquitous. There
was no digital audio or video, no software
companies, no asset management, no nonlinear editors, no video servers, no Ethernet
connectivity, no LED walls, no compression,
no pixels and best of all — no Windows®.
We had PAL, NTSC and wonderful analog
black boxes that connected together and
made pictures. Compared to today, the term
“workflow” wasn’t even a factor. Video systems just worked. Yes, videotape had huge
dropouts that flew across the screen, but life
was good.
Then things began to change — and the
pace of that change has continued exponentially.
Ampex VPR-2, the machine that first allowed practical slow
motion for broadcasts.
(Automatic Scan Tracking) the very next
year, practical slow motion instant replay
was born — and sports telecasts were forever changed. (When I worked on the video
crew for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles,
a VPR-2 was my slo-mo deck.)
• Ampex AVA (NAB 1978). In the beginning,
when you wanted to create original artwork for a newscast, your station’s art department drew it by hand, and you shot it
with a camera. Enter AVA (Ampex Video Art),
a tablet, menu and monitor system that
created on-screen artwork in PAL or NTSC,
with brushes, geometrics, text, and millions
of electronic colors. AVA launched an entire
video graphics industry, which has evolved
to today’s remarkable 3-D character generators, electronic paint and animation programs, and even PhotoShop®.
• Hawkeye and Betacam (NAB 1981). Prior to
1981, portable cameras weren’t so portable.
Typically, an ENG (Electronic News Gathering)
or EFP (Electronic Field Production) camera
was connected to an external 3/4-inch U-Matic recorder via umbilical cables. Enter RCA’s
Hawkeye in 1981, the industry’s first portable
camera/VCR combo, and both the ENG and
EFP industries changed directions. Not to
be outdone, Sony introduced their Betacam
product line at the same NAB and subsequently dominated ENG and EFP until the
introduction of the DV format in 1994.
• Ampex ADO (NAB 1981). Several companies, such as Vital (with their SqueeZoom
product), had been offering digital special
effects devices — essentially, a production switcher add-on that could size and
position a video image and key it over a
background. Enter ADO (Ampex Digital
Optics), with X-, Y-, and Z-axis rotation, true
perspective, a mathematically perfect 3-D
coordinate space and beautifully smooth
keyframe moves. Within months, every
commercial had spinning cubes with perfect perspective, and every newscast had
over-the-shoulder inserts. Today, almost every production switcher has built-in digital
effects, with a tip-of-the-hat to ADO.
• Avid NLE (NAB 1988). Editing was linear, clear
and simple. Two playback decks, one record
deck, and you were good to go. Several companies (such as CMX) had toyed with diskbased editing, but their proprietary hardware was not a solution. Enter Avid, with the
industry’s first Macintosh-based non-linear
editor, and in an instant, every linear editing
company saw the handwriting on the wall.
Even better, every editor intuitively realized
the beauty of moving clips along a timeline.
Today, three powerhouses dominate the
field — Avid, Apple® Final Cut Pro® and Adobe Premier® — and linear editing is toast.
• Tektronix ProFile (NAB 1994). For years,
commercial breaks at broadcast stations
were played out by high-maintenance cart
machines, such as the Sony Betacart, and
controlled by “traffic” computers. But with
the advances in MPEG compression and disk
storage, Tektronix unveiled the first practical
video server, the PDR-100. In an instant, stations saw that they could reduce their maintenance costs dramatically by playing out
from disk, and overnight 100 used Betacarts
were on the market. Today, almost every station and post house has a server infrastructure, with a tip-of-the-hat to ProFile.
• Red One Digital Cinema (NAB 2007). This is
the breakthrough that we’re in the midst of
today, and it has caused potential HD camera buyers to stop in their tracks. As cameras
evolved to HD resolutions and affordable
price points, production professionals suddenly had a wide choice of HD workflows.
But until today, the upper “resolution” limit
was essentially 2K (1920 x 1080). Enter Red
at NAB 2006, with no product, but simply a
PowerPoint that teased the entire industry
with their 4K camera to come, and its astonishing 4900 (h) x 2580 (v) native pixel
resolution. Skepticism was rampant, but
customers were 10 deep in the aisles. At
NAB 2007, the Red One was clearly real, with
product on display and a booth that one
had to wait in line to enter. Effectively, Red
has leapfrogged the entire HD world, doubled the acquisition resolution and thrown
buying decisions into disarray. Today’s 2K or
tomorrow’s 4K — that is the question.
A Wealth of Perspectives
VW
What? No gasps in between NAB 1994
and 2007? Well, yes … but they’re all slow
cross-fades, rather than distinct moments
of change. Consider — the attack of the
software companies, the rise of digital and
the arrival of HD as a viable production format. Each one is a brilliant (but slow) breakthrough — but definitely not a gasp.
By no means is my list the definitive
NAB “breakthrough” summary. Ask a dozen
video professionals, and you’ll get a wealth
of perspectives (and a handful of coax).
But the list is instrumental in demonstrating what 28 years can do to an industry as
remarkable as ours.
Today, RCA is gone, Ampex is a shadow
of its former self, and both Sony and Grass
Valley (a division of Thomson) remain industry juggernauts. With blessings, and the
ability to rewrite this article 28 years hence,
I’m reminded of a marvelous quote by the
renowned science fiction writer, Arthur C.
Clarke: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Here’s to NAB, and many more years of
magical breakthroughs.
Paul Berliner is President of Berliner Productions
in Davis, California — a company providing video
production and marcom services to the broadcast
and entertainment industries. He can be reached at
[email protected].
www.PLSN.com
5/30/07 11:35:58 PM
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5/30/07 11:14:38 PM
FEEDING THE MACHINES
Top Secret
By BradSchiller
Tips for the Automated Lighting Programmer
A
n automated lighting programmer can
gain lots of information from the user
manuals of consoles and fixtures. However, there are many practices that go beyond
just the capabilities of the console. Understanding how certain functions can be used to enhance your programming abilities is one of the
traits of successful lighting programmers. While
most beginners jump at the chance to learn
about loops, chases, effects and other standard
programming tools, many miss the more subtle
capabilities that can greatly improve their programming experience. Experienced programmers use these tricks of the trade everyday,
often without realizing just how important the
methods are to their programming.
Using Default Values
FM
All automated lighting consoles define
a default value for each parameter of every
fixture in the patch. These values ensure that
your fixture is set in a neutral position and
with its parameters free of colors, gobos, etc.,
when you begin programming. Conventional
fixtures typically default with an intensity of
zero, while automated fixtures require special values for each parameter. For example, a
simple fixture will have a default value of 50
percent for pan and tilt, and an “open” value
for the iris, gobo wheels, color wheels and
shutter. These open values are often not a
DMX value of zero, but a specific value as defined in the protocol of the fixture. The more
complex the fixture, the more complex the
default values will need to be. Digital fixtures
and media servers have very detailed default
values due to the complexity of manipulating
media elements. Many parameters must be
set properly to ensure that an image is visible
from the device.
Luckily, the initial default settings for fixtures are determined by the console manufacturer in their fixture library. Typically, the
automated lighting programmer does not
need to know what is required to prepare a
fixture for programming. However it is important that you understand these default
values and know how to restore them quickly
if needed. A common trick is to create a palette or preset that will restore your fixture
to its default values. Then this palette can be
quickly recalled to “reset” the fixture. For instance, in the middle of programming a media server show, suppose you wish to remove
the current settings from the server. You don’t
want to release the current playback, but you
do want to begin programming a new look
without the same parameter values that are
playing back on stage. You could select each
parameter and adjust it back to what appears
to be an open value, or instead you could simply select your default palette and instantly
restore the initial settings. This is especially
important when working with automated
shutters or digital keystone correction. If the
fixture moves to a new position and you need
to update the shutter or keystone parameters, it is often easier to reset these values to
default than to adjust from the value of the
previous cue. Often, a programmer will make
several default palettes based on the parameter type, in addition to just one large default
palette.
Custom Default Values
FM
Another helpful secret of experienced automated lighting programmers is altering the
default values for a fixture in the console before programming even begins. This ensures
that fixtures are set up as needed for each
particular show, instead of in a generic meth-
od as defined by the console manufacturer. I
always take the time to align all my fixtures
positions so they are each pointing downstage as a default. Normally, a lighting console will orient fixtures so they are pointing
straight down or 50/50. However, when you
build position palettes, this can often lead to
fixtures panning and tilting in different directions. For this reason, I first determine a starting position for each of my fixtures that works
with the current lighting rig. Then I know that
as I grab each light to build position palettes, I
am panning and tilting in the same direction.
This reduces my chances of experiencing accidental “flips” between positions.
Programmers also alter the default values
for parameters such as zoom, focus, color, frost
and special modes. Just like with position, the
console manufacture will often set focus and
zoom to a value in the middle of their range.
While this is useful in most cases, you might
know that in this production, the fixtures will
always need to be zoomed out. Furthermore,
you might decide to set the frost parameter all
the way in or the CTO flag at a certain percentage as a default. Any changes to the default
values will guarantee that these parameters
are always set as needed for a specific production (until you make changes within cues).
Tip Sheet
FM
Today’s marketplace has many different
types of consoles and fixtures available. This
means that a programmer must be aware
of how to use various types of equipment.
Prior to arriving at the venue, you should do
some research about the specific console
and fixtures you will be using. Make some
notes and create your own tip sheet for
each production. This might include fixture
numbering information, special settings for
fixtures, important console keystrokes that
are complex and tough to remember, plus
contact phone numbers.
Contacts
FM
Speaking of contact phone numbers, it
is always a good idea to know who you can
call if you get into trouble. You should know
the names and numbers of important people
within the organization responsible for your
production. It might also be helpful to have a
contact at the lighting rental company, as well
as the manufacturers of the various equipment. At the very least, you should know
the support phone numbers and e-mail address for the major lighting console and fixture manufacturers. Then, if something goes
wrong, you are ready to respond and make
any needed calls without spending valuable
time deciding who to call.
Save Your Changes
50 PLSN JUNE 2007
100.0706.50.indd 50
FM
Things do go wrong from time to time, so
it is always important to back up your show
file often. I know that most modern consoles
use internal hard drives and are continually
saving your show file, but that is no guaranty
that it will be there when you need it. It is still
imperative that you make regular backups to
external media. Every 30 minutes or so, you
should make a backup Continued on page 59
www.PLSN.com
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5/30/07 11:15:09 PM
ROAD TEST
Rosco LitePad
is
Ready
f o r Your Close-up
If you thought you’d seen every LED
light source known to man, think again.
By RichardCadena
T
he age of LED lighting has yet to
hit full stride, but already there is an
abundance of LED luminaires for the
entertainment lighting market. They all
work pretty much the same way, with either RGB color mixing or white and amber
LEDs and focusing lenses — or do they?
Undiscovered Country
RT
The Rosco LitePad is a unique animal
in the LED jungle. Rather than projecting
light directly from the LED sources, this
creature uses a number of small white LEDs
to bounce light from its square white polycarbonate molded body. The pad has a matrix of tiny squares molded into a substrate
that serves to make the maximum use of
the reflected light. The LEDs are embedded
along the perimeter of the unit and, rather
than being focused toward the subject,
they are focused toward the pad so the
light is reflected and scattered. The result is
a very uniformly distributed light that creates a soft glow from a wide area. Although
it’s probably not an ideal projector, it can
be used for a number of applications, including backlighting sets or front lighting
for close-ups, as well as props, table top and
display lighting. For the truly creative, there
are any number of applications waiting to
be discovered.
The LitePad is available in a number of
different sizes, including 3 inches by 3 inches,
3 inches by 6 inches, 6 inches by 6 inches, 3
inches by 12 inches, 6 inches by 12 inches
and 12 inches by 12 inches. Custom-size LitePads can be made as alarge as 39 inches by
96 inches, with other colors of LEDs available
as well. It’s a very slim 3/8 inch thick, allowing
it to be slipped into the tightest space. At 2
pounds, 1.6 ounces, for the 12 inch by 12 inch
size, it’s lightweight enough to be mounted
with double-sided foam tape. Multiple units
can be mounted to cover larger areas, although they are hard-wired, so each unit has
its own power cable. Optional “Y” splitter caAd info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info
52 PLSN JUNE 2007
100.0706.52.indd 52
bles can be used, however, to power multiple
units from one power supply.
Lighting Outside the Box
RT
The quality of the light is excellent. It
has a daylight color temperature, and the
large source produces a soft light. To use
it as a key light, however, would require a
very short throw. With a Minolta T-10 illuminance meter, I measured 100 footcandles at
17 inches using the 12 inch by 12 inch unit.
As a front light, it’s not overpowering, but
as a source for backlighting, it is surprisingly strong.
Because the source is LED, the rated life is
100,000 hours, and there is virtually no heat
at all. Power is supplied through a switching
adapter that accepts 100-240 VAC at 50 or
60 Hz and converts it to 12 VDC to supply
it to the LitePad. It operates at a maximum
of 36 VA (about 36 watts). Rosco promises
an external dimming unit with annual and
DMX control, but that won’t be available until summer. In the meanting, since the LEDs
operate at 12VDC, it would be fairly easy to
find a variable voltage source to run them
with dimming capability. I didn’t try it, but
I believe my old HO gauge train set power
supply might do the trick.
Optional accessories include a 10-foot
(3 meter) extension power cable, 12 V car
adapter, 12 V battery, carrying case and the
aforementioned “Y” splitter cable. A kit with
two each of every size is also available.
The Verdict
RT
The LitePad is not going to replace the
Source Four ERS, but it’s an incredibly versatile and handy tool to have in your lighting toolbox. It’s a very flattering light to use
for key or fill light, provided you can get it
close enough to the subject, and you don’t
have to worry about blocking sightlines.
But I think it will find a lot of success as a
way to light sets and to backlight translucent features like stained glass.
What It Is: LED soft light
What It’s For: A variety of lighting applications including key light, fill light, set lighting,
backlighting, hazardous areas such as stairs and platform edges, orchestra lighting, etc.
Pros: Excellent quality of light, soft and diffuse, slim profile, lightweight, long life, versatile
power supply
Cons: No built-in dimming or DMX512 control; short throw required for key or fill light
3” x 3” 3” x 6” 3” x 12” 6” x 6” 6” x 12” 12” x 12”
$59.99 $115.00 $175.00 $175.00 $345.00 $525.00
Web site: www.rosco.com
Retail Price:
www.PLSN.com
5/30/07 11:46:42 PM
THE BIZ
By DanDaley
Hit the Road, Jack
BIZ
BIZ
The general reasoning on the part of newly apostate exhibitors is that marketing dollars
might be better applied in more direct contact
with customers — on the audio side, Harman’s
“Road Shows” are cited as an example of taking the product and the message into the field,
rather than hoping the customer base has
enough time to stop by your booth.
If it’s any consolation, North American trade
shows have slowed in growth overall to as little
as one to three percent per year, according to
the Trade Show Exhibitors Association in Chicago. The organization’s president, Stephen Schuldenfrei, told me that growth is down for exactly
the reasons cited by some exhibitors from LDI:
“There’s more media slicing up the marketing
pie, and the pie’s not getting any bigger,” he said,
adding that, historically, some industry sectors
will inevitably see a decline in trade show attendance as their sectors mature and become diffuse through convergence and other dynamics.
Sharon Morabito, group show director for
Penton Media, the show’s organizer, countered
that LDI experienced exhibitor growth of 30
percent from 2005 to 2006. “I’m sure that certain technology markets are contracting, but
we’re just not seeing that trend with LDI,” she
said. Morabito said that the show is sensitive to
exhibitor and attendee needs; square footage
booth costs have remained stable at between
$20 and $23, depending upon booth size, and
attendees are offered personal assistance in
navigating the show floor if they ask for it.
“It’s not a mega-show, and we want to keep
the intimate feel LDI has,” she said. “It’s important not to go the way of Comdex” — a high-flying high-tech expo that expired precipitously in
2004.“You can’t let a show come to think of itself
as more important than the market it serves.”
Bill Morris, executive vice president of High
End Systems, brings up two crucial points that
would resonate with any high-tech exec, though.
“Lighting is a fast-follower industry, meaning if
someone is an innovator, they can expect that
competitors will emulate their new designs
quickly and often cheaply,” he explained. The
solution, he said, is for innovators to get closer to
their vertical markets more quickly, presenting
innovations in person, so to speak, deepening
the link between the customer of the company’s
development process as well as its products, and
also grazing at shows targeting other industries,
such as cruise lines and houses of worship.
Second, said Morris, new products introductions need adequate spacing. “As it is, PLASA and
LDI are within weeks of each other,” he said. “The
idea of two venues a year to launch products is
a good thing, but not when they’re this close together.We and other companies have been asking
for four years to get these shows rescheduled.”
An inescapable fact of life for large trade
shows is that the spacious venues they need
tend to be booked as long as four years in advance, says Schuldenfrei. “Changing timing or
a venue can take years.”
It may be of little solace to anyone, but a
trade show is perhaps the single best context
in which to see Adam’s Smith “unseen hand
of the market” do its stuff. A show will evolve
based on how a market is perceived by its organizers, many of whom have their own profit
motive. A show’s constituency has its own particular view of how its market is changing. To
the extent that both parties can converge their
perceptions, they can evolve together. NAMM
has been a good example to see how it has integrated professional audio and lighting into a
putatively MI environment. To the extent they
can’t, I’d call that Comdex.
Over There
executes that’s particular to the times: it’s a place to
police intellectual property (IP) theft. Last April, the
U.S. government filed two IP complaints against
China with the World Trade Organization —
China’s membership in that group was specifically
contingent largely on China cleaning up its piracy
act. Expecting that to happen in any meaningful
manner in just a few years remains wishful thinking
— the very concept of IP is still being slowly and
often reluctantly integrated into Asian business
culture. Last year, several Chinese ministries
jointly released a paper entitled “Measures for the
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights During
Exhibitions,” which emphasizes the responsibility
of exhibition organizers to increase efforts to
ensure copied products will not be exhibited.
However, the government itself doesn’t get
involved until Article 19 (http://english.
mofcom.gov.cn/aarticle/policyrelease/
domesticpolicy/200604/20060401844272.
html); the paper is as much posturing as
it is policy. (And you can monitor China’s
posture at www.ipr.gov.cn.)
In the meantime, though, the trade show
offers a means to track, measure and, to some
extent, change the realities of doing business
in a non-IP-oriented culture. It’s a chance to, as
both President Lyndon Johnson and Godfather
Michael Corleone put it,“Hold your friends close
but your enemies closer.”
Contact Dan at [email protected]
BIZ
While the national trade show sector in general may be meeting resistance from some marketing departments, international trade show
business is getting more aggressive. The Frankfurt Messe, in particular, has been partnering
with trade show organizers to help them energize their exhibitor base. In 2003, Frankfurt Messe
joined with Media-Tech, a Europe-based upstart
rival to RepliTech, the world’s largest series of
trade shows covering the CD and DVD business,
literally killing off the older show in a year’s time.
Frankfurt Messe is the force behind Prolight + Sound Shanghai, which takes place in
China’s premier industrial city in October. The
Messe announced that the show will double
in size this year from the 12,000 attendees
and exhibitors recorded at the 2006 show.
Trade shows will experience a different
dynamic in developing areas of the world
than in North America or Europe because the
Third World’s infrastructure is being built out
at a furious pace. China is Las Vegas on a tectonic scale at the moment. (Except the condos are selling better in Shanghai.) To lesser
degrees, the rest of Asia, the Middle East and
Africa are also experiencing infrastructure expansion. In these areas, the trade show performs its traditional role as central souk.
But there’s one other function the trade show
www.PLSN.com
T
rade shows are the standing punch line
of any industry — can’t live with ‘em, can’t
live without ‘em. Or can you? LDI, the putative main show of the professional lighting
and staging industry for the last two decades,
is experiencing some significant turbulence
this year. As reported a few months ago, Martin
Professional and High End Systems have both
opted out of the Orlando expo this year, the first
time both have not exhibited, and Vari-Lite has
announced that it will cut back its presence at
the show. Syncrolite is expected to do the same.
2007 JUNE PLSN 53
ROAD TEST
Is there actually a console that will let you watch the stage?
By Dave McGinnis
I
RT
In Motion
Once a scene has been set up, you can
take a snapshot of the DMX output by pressing the Record Scene button, and the maXim will record both conventional and automated fixture settings (unless the dimmer
channel is off, in which case it ignores the
fixture). Alternately, moving light settings
can be stored in the playbacks using only
the PatPad Store or Store+Level buttons.
In terms of programming, the maXim
is one of the easiest new consoles I have
worked in a long time. Basic cues can be
RT
The Gear
recorded with a few simple keystrokes, and
When you first crack the case and look at the computer screen shows all the levels
the maXim, you see a row of 36 yellow -striped with which you’re working at any given
faders lining the top, 36 red-striped faders moment. The recording of moving chases
just beneath them and six blue-striped fad- and cues is unprecedented in its simplicity,
ers in the botas far as I can
tom left corThe only
The maXim is one of the tell.
ner. On top of
drawback —
that, there’s a easiest new consoles I have and this is only
“stack” fader
a
drawback
worked in a long time.
to the right of
depending
the blue fadon what you
ers. Moving right along the bottom of the plan to use the console to do — is that the
console, you see three buttons for record- console does have a finite amount of fader
ing cues, stacks and chases and a single pages available and a finite number of
control wheel. In the bottom right corner moving fixtures it will control at any given
is the PatPad, which is a touchscreen selec- time. When I was working with it, I never
tion menu for controlling both fixtures and approached the max fader count, as I was
attributes. This is the area of the console using it in a more theatre-oriented approach.
that controls moving fixtures.
But I can see how you could max out your
Yes, this console was designed with pages without maxing out your memory
both moving and conventional fixtures in if you programmed the console in certain
mind. The size of the console varies, how- ways, or if your rig was large enough.
ever, depending on what you need. The
I did have slight issues in the beginmaXim comes in six versions, from a 12/24 ning when I wanted to edit a preexisting
two-scene preset to a 60/120 two-scene cue. I found it simpler (and faster) to just
preset console — I worked what you might rebuild cues and chases from scratch than
call the “middle-of-the-road” version.
to try to edit a cue or step already in the
The yellow-striped faders act as single list. On average, I found myself spending
fixture controls, while the red-striped fad- as much as two to three minutes editing
ers can serve as yet more fixture controls a cue, but one could be built and timed
in “wide” mode. These red faders, however, in 30 to 60 seconds, depending on what I
can also function as cue lists. This ups your wanted to do and the number of steps in
cue list faders from 6 to 42 with the touch the chase I was building.
of a button. The blue-striped faders act
The biggest thing to watch with this
as cue lists in any mode selected, and the console is how you operate the PatPad.
stack fader acts as a sort of grandmaster for On more than one occasion, I tapped the
your stacks of cues and chases.
fixture or attribute I wanted, only to see
The PatPad selects and controls moving strange things happening before my eyes.
fixtures from a library of fixture personality It turned out that I hadn’t pressed the Patprofiles. The intensity of both conventional Pad hard enough, so I found myself adjustand automated fixtures is controlled via ing pans when I wanted to adjust tilts, or
the yellow faders, while all other param- color when I wanted to adjust intensity. In
eters of the moving fixtures are controlled its defense, however, the PatPad made conexclusively from the PatPad.
trolling moving fixtures very easy when I
Those are the major visible features, but pressed it hard enough. I did wonder how
it’s always more fun to test-drive than to look.
the PatPad would stand up to continu-
’m always on the lookout for a console
that provides easy access to moving fixture control. With the plethora of consoles making their way into the market, the
chances are increasing daily that you may
find yourself in a situation where you have
to rely on a console you’ve never so much
as seen before. The easier that console is to
learn, the better a show you can run. Upon
viewing it, my first impression was that LSC’s
maXim lighting console was designed to try
to accommodate this growing need.
54 PLSN JUNE 2007
100.0706.54.indd 54
ous use in a rugged environment over an
extended period of time, as I didn’t have
a year to run it every day. But the North
American distributor (Applied Electronics
— www.appliednn.com) says that it’s rated for one-million-plus repetitive touches,
and it is designed for “very hard use.” They
also said that in four years of distribution,
they have had zero failures.
The biggest plus in favor of this console, though, is the fixture library. While
this anecdote will start off sounding like a
condemnation, believe me when I say that
it is praise.
One of the fixtures I wanted to use
with the MaXim had no personality recorded either in the console or on the
disk that I received when I went to patch
the console — which is uber-simple by
the way. But I did not fear, as I knew that
LSC has numerous personalities available on their Web site. However, it happened that they didn’t have the one that
I needed. So I pondered my options. Any
of you out there who have been around
the block know the answer to this dilemma — build the profile yourself. [Jon
Lenard of Applied Electronics told us that
he could build a fixture profile within 24
hours if it is needed. – ed.]
I sat down and steeled myself for the
experience of profile-building in a pinch, on
a console with which I had never worked.
But, to my pleasant surprise, building a new
profile for the console took me no more
than 45 minutes, and that was my first time
trying it. With a little practice, you could
get to the point where you could possibly build brand new profiles from scratch
on this console in as little as 10 minutes,
depending on the number of attributes.
(Obviously, the larger a footprint a piece of
gear has, the longer it will take.)
RT
Conclusions
The ease of programming with this
console makes it a great transition for
anyone coming out of a conventional environment wanting to cross into moving
fixtures. While it is somewhat limited in its
large-scale moving-fixture applications, it
is a great middle-ground console that will
definitely ease the pangs of conventionalto-moving fever. I could see this console
doing very well in theatrical venues and
on small to medium-scale tours. Most of
all, it was just nice to work a console that
took my mind off of the programming and
let me do what I really like to do — watch
the lighting.
www.PLSN.com
5/30/07 11:39:12 PM
Pretty as a Picture
TECHNOPOLIS
“Avoid making a commotion, just as you wouldn’t stir up
the water before fishing. Don’t use a flash out of respect
for the natural lighting, even when there isn’t any. If
these rules aren’t followed, the photographer becomes
unbearably obtrusive.”
-Henri Cartier-Bresson
The New York Dolls at a taping of Soundstage in the Chicago PBS studio.
I
have pictures of almost every gig I have
ever designed. Most of my coworkers give
me a hard time when they see me roaming
around with my camera like a tourist in Paris.
Of course, they don’t hesitate to call me for
copies after the show is over.
Over the years, I’ve gotten a little better at
getting useable photos in all types of situations.
Whether you’re using a hundred-dollar pointand-shoot or a thousand-dollar DSLR, here are
a few tips on how you can do the same.
The Law of Averages
TECH
The more photos you take, the better
your chance is of getting a winner. Unexpected, isn’t it? Shockingly, most people expect to
pull out their camera for about two minutes
and end up with a great image every time.
Not convinced? Consider this…
For an average National Geographic article, the photographer will take the equivalent of 300 – 400 rolls of film. That’s more than
10,000 frames. A complex feature may have
three times as many. So, your first goal is to
shoot as many photos as you can.
The great thing is that most of us are using digital cameras these days, which means
it doesn’t cost you anything to take more
pictures. You could fill up an entire memory
card with photos, download them to your
computer and not find a single good pic. You
haven’t spent a dime. You just have to delete
the photos and try again.
Going Au Naturale
TECH
For most events, a flash is not going to
help you get the shot. In most cases, your
camera’s built-in flash doesn’t affect anything
that’s more than a few meters away. So, when
you’re taking that wide shot of the set or the
booth, you have a better chance of catching
some nasty glare off the head of that bald guy
in front of you rather than adding anything to
the look of your work.
Often, the best-case scenario with your
flash is that it doesn’t do anything other than
annoy the people who happen to be facing
you at that instant. The worst-case is that it
flattens your image and washes out anything
nearby. So try turning it off.
Color Is King
TECH
“White balance” is photographer-speak
for adjusting the camera for color temperature. It’s a setting used to adjust for the main
type of light in a photo.
If we used the same setting for everything,
photos under fluorescents would all appear
green, photos under arc lights would appear
blue and photos under incandescent lighting
would look yellow. Fortunately, we have a way
to adjust for this.
Almost every camera made today has
an adjustable white balance, just like a video
camera. From the factory, they’re generally left
in a mode called “Auto White Balance” (AWB
or Auto). While this works fine when you’re
taking pictures of puppy dogs, airplanes and
birthday parties, it’s not always the greatest
thing for the unique types of sets, booths or
stages you’re trying to capture. So experiment with the white balance setting on your
camera. If your subject is mainly lit by incandescent lighting, look for a setting that looks
like a light bulb (for “tungsten”).
Most of my pictures are lit primarily with
automated lights, which are primarily arc
sources. Most cameras don’t have a white balance setting for this. If you’re in this position,
try out one of the fluorescent settings. These
are usually indicated by a little bar with “light
rays” shooting out from it. (It looks a lot like a
plutonium rod on The Simpsons.)
Getting Up to Speed
TECH
Even though all those lights on stage may
look really bright, your camera may still need
a little extra help. Instead of trying to add light,
try speeding up your camera a little bit. The
ISO setting in your camera allows you to make
it more sensitive to light. Setting your camera
to a high ISO number will allow you to take
a picture in a shorter time, which will help to
reduce blur in your photos. Be careful though,
setting this too high can result in added grain
or distortion when you view your photos. This
will vary from camera to camera, but usually
happens around ISO 1600 or 3200.
Try keeping your camera at ISO 800 for
a good in-between setting that will offer
good picture quality while also giving you
the speed you need for most shots. Some
of the newer cameras on the market will
give you a pretty clean image at a setting
of 1600 as well.
Getting the Shot
TECH
As with anything technical or artistic, the
only way to get good at photography is to
practice. The more photos you take, the better you’ll understand your equipment. And
the better you understand your equipment,
the more great photos you’ll get out of it.
So good luck and happy shooting.
Phil Gilbert can usually be found by looking for the guy with a tripod sitting immediately in front of his lighting console. If
that’s too hard, then you can also find him
at pgilbert@ plsn.com.
By PhilGilbert
There’s a place deep beneath the Technopolis where designers find darkrooms and photographers find the light. We call it The Complex. There you
can find out more about what you see in Technopolis, including technical
details about this month’s article and discussions on the entertainment
technology of today (and tomorrow). Find it online at http://www.plsn.com/
complex/. To share some of your (new and improved) photos with us, visit
our new Flickr group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/plsn_complex/.
www.PLSN.com
2007 JUNE PLSN 55
FOCUS ON FUNDAMENTALS
It’s Not Just a Good Idea,
It’s Ohm’s Law
By RichardCadena
“It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the
modern methods of instruction have not entirely
strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.”
– Albert Einstein
H
ave you ever wondered what people gack. It was a real coup for the son of a lockdid before television, iPods and the smith. He had recently been downloading the
internet?
works of the day, and high on his playlist was
In the 19th century, the rock stars of the Volta, who had recently developed an elecday were mathematicians and physicists tric cell battery. Volta’s battery was called the
like Isaac Newton, Leonhard “Cyclops” Euler, voltaic pile, and it was a forerunner to today’s
Pierre-Simon “Marquis” de Laplace, Joseph electric battery. Georg could barely afford the
Fourier, “Count” Alessandro Volta and Syl- two vowels in his name when he got the gig
vestre François de Lacroix. Those who liked and began experimenting with the voltaic
to read were front and center for the latest pile. His goal was to figure out the relationperformances around.
ship between voltage and current.
Even though he had no formal
education — or maybe because of Ohm’s law is one of the
it — Johann Wolfgang Ohm liked to most important tools that
read books about philosophy and
a production professional
mathematics. He was a locksmith
and a master mechanic, but he can carry in the tool box.
wanted more for his children. He educated them all himself, and he taught them
Fourier had recently published a paper
well enough that his son Georg was able to based on Newton’s law of cooling, in which
enroll in college in 1805 at the age of 15. he said that the flow of heat between two
Like many teenagers, the young Ohm spent points is proportional to the difference in
more time partying than he did studying. the temperature. Ohm wondered if the flow
His father lost patience with him and sent of electric current might be similar to the
him to Switzerland where Georg became flow of heat. To test his theory, he connected
a math teacher. But the seeds of discovery a voltaic pile to a wire and measured the curhad already been planted, and in due time, rent flowing through it with a galvanometer.
he returned to college and completed his He varied the size, length and type of wire
doctorial degree.
to see what would happen. What he found
Eventually Georg landed a teaching gig in was that, when the cross-sectional diameter
a school that had a physics lab loaded with of the wire increased, so did the current. But
when the length of the wire increased, the
current dropped. His empirical observations
eventually led him to figure out that the
cross-sectional diameter and length of the
wire determined its total resistance, and that
the resistance determined how much current would flow for a given value of voltage.
In 1827, he published a book entitled Die
galvanische Kette mathematisch bearbeitet,
which roughly translates to “a mathematic
model of galvanic current.” Perhaps he
should have had a better agent because the
book was completely trashed by the critics.
It wasn’t until several years later that it became a big hit. Today, we recognize it as the
basis for Ohm’s law, which says that voltage
is equal to the current (measured in amps)
times the resistance, or V = I × R.
Ohm’s law is one of the most important
tools that a production professional can
carry in the tool box. It relates to so many
important aspects of power distribution and
technology that its power of analysis can’t
be overstated.
Will This Be On the Test?
56 PLSN JUNE 2007
FOF
Last year, when the Entertainment Technician Certification Program (ETCP — etcp.
esta.org) started certifying entertainment
electricians, they published a little pamphlet
called the ETCP Candidate Handbook to help
potential candidates figure out what the
program is all about. In addition to spelling
out the details of what is on the test, it also
included some sample test questions. One
of the questions caused a bit of a controversy among several professionals in the field.
Some of the most seasoned MEs were at a
loss as to how to go about solving the problem, while others thought the answer given
in the pamphlet was wrong. It turns out that
the answer is correct, but it just takes some
manipulation to get there.
The question was:
Which of the following
currents would flow in
an extension cord connecting a luminaire
with a 575W, 115V
incandescent lamp to
a receptacle providing
120V?
A. 4.8A
B. 5.0A
C. 5.2A
D. 6.2A
The problem poses a question about the
current, but we’re only given the power in
watts and the rated voltage of the lamp. In
order to find the current, according to Ohm’s
law, we need to know the voltage and resistance of the lamp. Can you find it?
By using the power formula, P (watts) = V
(volts) × I (amps), we can figure out that at 115V,
the current is 5 amps. Now that we know the
voltage and current, we can use Ohm’s law to
figure out the resistance of the filament, which
is 23 ohms. Now that we know the resistance,
we can use Ohm’s law to figure out the current
at 120 volts. And the answer is 5.2 amps. It’s easier than helping your kid with math homework.
Ohm’s law and its derivatives are the basis
for most of the calculations we use to ensure
the success of a show. It helps us determine
our power requirements, our demand factor,
our I2R losses, our efficiency, and it helps us
build safe and effective power distribution systems. Once we are familiar with the relationship between voltage, current and resistance,
then we can better understand this thing we
call electricity. After all, we can’t see it, we dare
not touch it and the only way we can observe
it is through empirical observation or by modeling it mathematically. That’s what Ohm’s law
gives us — a way of predicting its behavior.
But really, it’s more than a mathematic
equation, it’s the law.
Shock the author by sending an e-mail to
[email protected].
www.PLSN.com
100.0706.ADS.indd 57
5/30/07 11:15:40 PM
MARKETPLACE
Employment
Your #1 resource for
continuing education.
Call 702.454.8550 for
Marketplace rates or email
[email protected]
Visit www.plsnbookshelf.com
58
PLSN june 2007
100.0706.58_MP.indd 58
www.PLSN.com
5/30/07 11:18:23 PM
COMPANY
PG#
PH
ADVERTISER’S INDEX
URL
COMPANY
PG#
PH
URL
4Wall Entertainment
50
702.263.3858
http://plsn.hotims.com/12804-181
Martin Professional
C1
954.858.1800
AC Lighting
6
416.255.9494
Mega Lite
17
210.684.2600
A.C.T Lighting, Inc.
21
818.707.0884
MDG Fog Generators Limited
15
800.663.3020
All Access Staging & Prod.
52
310.784.2464
Milos
35
800.411.0065
American DJ
47
866.245.6726
Ocean Optics
9
727.545.0741
Apollo Design Technology
13
800.288.4626
Orion Software
12
877.755.2012
Applied Electronics
41
800.883.0008
Penn-Elcom
7
973.378.8700
ASI Production Services
42
407.240.8080
PR Lighting LTD
31
253.395.9494
Atlanta Rigging
30
404.355.4370
Pro-Tapes & Specialties
27
732.346.0900
Branam
3
661.295.3300
Pyrotek
37
905.479.9991
Bulbtronics
30
800.227.2852
R&M Materials Handling
10
800.955.9967
Chauvet Lighting
5, 29
800.762.1084
Robe America
2
954.615.9100
Checkers Industrial Prod.
50
800.438.9336
Roc-Off
17
877.978.2437
City Theatrical Inc.
55
800.230.9497
Sew What
54
866.444.2062
Clay Paky
1
609.812.1564
Staging Dimensions
19
866.591.3471
Coemar
51
954.578.8881
SuperScreen
40
303.778.0045
Creative Stage Lighting
10
518.251.3302
Techni-Lux
C2
407.857.8770
Doug Fleenor Design
16
888.436.9512
TMS
56
402.592.5522
Edirol
45
800.380.2580
Tyler Truss Systems
5
903.877.0300
Elation
C4
866.245.6726
Upstaging
44
815.899.9888
Entertainment 1
16
818.407.1357
Wireless Solutions
39
800.421.3562
ETCP
53
212.244.1505
Wybron
8
800.624.0146
Full Sail
37
800.226.7625
XL Video
57
818.794.0606
GE Specialty Lighting
11
800.435.2677
High End Systems
43
512.836.2242
IATSE
46
212.730.1770
MARKET PLACE
In-House Productions
14
702.631.4748
City Theatrical Inc.
58
800.230.9497
Intelevent Systems
16
800.348.2486
DK Capital
58
517.347.7844
James Thomas Engineering
44
865.692.3060
ELS
58
800.357.5444
Konica Minolta
42
215.343.4828
Hybrid Case
58
800.346.4638
Leprecon/Cae Inc.
18
810.231.9373
Light Source Inc.
58
248.685.0102
Leviton
49
800.996.2276
Lightronics
58
757.486.3588
Lex Products
14
800.643.4460
RC4
58
866.258.4577
Light Source
4
803.547.4765
Roadshow
59
800.861.3111
Lightronics
C3
757.486.3588
Special FX Lighting
58
435.635.0239
Look Solutions
17
800.426.4189
TLS
59
866.254.7803
Main Light
38
302.998.8017
Upstaging
58
815.899.9888
Continued from page 59
Share the Secrets
of your show file to a floppy, flash or CD.
As a lighting programmer, it is your duty
to create and protect the console data.
You never know when a previous copy
of the show file will come in handy. I follow this rule of thumb: No matter what
goes wrong, you should never lose more
than 30 minutes of your work. The horror
stories of programmers losing hours of
work due to a console crash is as much
due to their bad saving practices as it is
to the console crashing. There is no excuse for programming for hours without
making a backup on external media.
Automated lighting programming has
come a long way from the early days of proprietary push-button controllers. With complex fixture libraries, internal drives and detailed DMX protocols, today’s programmer
must constantly learn new tricks of the trade.
We must continue to share our practices and
experiences with each other to ensure a
unified industry knowledge base. So go out
there and refine the items described here
and share these and other tips with all other
programmers you encounter.
FM
Brad Schiller can be reached at [email protected].
www.PLSN.com
100.0706.59_index.indd 59
2007 JUNE PLSN
59
6/1/07 8:21:07 AM
LD-AT-LARGE
By NookSchoenfeld
I
The Corporate
Band LD
work a lot of corporate shows each
year. Many are events where a company
brings its national sales staff to a nice resort for four days of motivational speaking
and sales pitches. These events usually include a dinner followed by a big-name musical act. These acts are usually bands that
were big 20 years ago and had a slew of hits
that they gladly replay for a phenomenal
fee at your corporate dinner party.
Many of these bands make more money
now than they did in their heyday selling out
arenas. They still have pride in what they do,
even while intoxicated 40-year-old women
try to dance on stage with them (a normal
occurrence at these galas). All these bands
also have good lighting designers to ensure
that their show will look good regardless of
what gear is available for each gig. And they
keep a lot of my friends working.
I’ve known Greg Maltby forever, or so
it seems. Greg is an Emmy Award-winning
LD who designs several musical tours and
TV events each year. But for 25 years, he
has been working for a living lighting Huey
Lewis and the News. Huey works a few days
each month playing corporate events. The
old folks love him, and his string of ‘80s
hits makes him perfect for this type of gig.
Sometimes I cover for Greg when he has a
scheduling conflict, but I can’t match his
talent. After all these years, he knows every
drum hit or horn blast and nails them with
lighting cues.
Being an LD for these kinds of acts is
tough. First of all, you have to be able to
COMING NEXT
MONTH...
•The Traveling
Titans of Theatre
Who are the
people behind
the touring
behemoths?
• PLSN Interview
WE CHAT WITH Rick Baxter,
the master
electrician
behind countless touring
broadway shows.
handle the pressure of having to program
different fixtures on different consoles almost every gig. But if you do your homework and are willing to fight for what you
want, you can be quite successful at this
type of gig. Demanding the right tools, especially the console, is a big part of the gig.
Basically, an LD will have a specific light
plot that he tries to use for all of these gigs.
For Greg, it consists of about 180 kW of conventional PARs and lekos. He carries around
an old Celco console just to run these shows
when he can talk the client into duplicating
his rig. When Greg can’t get his PARs, he will
ask for an Avolites Pearl console to quickly
program the moving lights with a series
of cues he punts with. He likes this little
console, and it is readily available in most
places he goes.
If he can’t get that, he’s stuck spending
the day with the lighting company rep in
charge of programming the consoles. This
can be trying because everyone has their
own style of running a show. Greg likes to
use lots of faders to run his show. He wants
all the cue info (dimmers, color, beams) on
the same fader. But nothing ever moves
during the show. Huey hates moving lights
and Maltby accepts that. If the band did not
hire Greg, there would be a different LD every night doing something the boss does
not want. Therefore, he has job security.
People who take on these permanent
jobs must have a formula that works for
them and their client. This formula becomes
a unique punt page that they can set up on
almost any console, and it will allow them
to grab specific lights at specific times for
maximum dramatic effects. Greg sets up
things differently than I do, but his system
works for him and that’s what matters. Last
week, I was hired as a liaison between the
lighting company at a trade show and Greg.
It was a smart move, since Greg trusts me
to program the Hogs that were available
to him, and the event didn’t have enough
power or generators available for 180 kilowatts of PARs. He has never been a fan of
the Hog and wing, so here I am.
Greg needs 10 faders designated for key
lights on his band members. He then needs
one fader just to store the pan and tilt info for
the lights since they will rarely move during
his show. In the other 20 faders, he will assign
color combos and intensity values. Each time
he brings a fader up, it will snap the lights to a
new color. The intensity values for each light will
be proportionate to the color. In other words,
blues, reds and lavender will always run at full,
but lighter colors will have to be turned down
so you don’t blind or melt the band. This is a big
consideration, since most of these type of gigs
take place in resort ballrooms, the kind where a
15-foot truss trim makes for a good day.
Greg will make five separate pages of
these punt faders, but he has a system that
is quite clever. Each page is designed to
have the same color front light. There is a
page each for blue, light lavender, amber,
pink and CTO. On each fader of a page, the
front light will be close to the same, but
the back and side lighting will change in
zero time. This is good for video, because
the band will always be lit the same from
the front, while the back light changes to
accent all the timing changes and things
like drum hits or sax solos. It also proves
that you don’t necessarily have to sweep
all the lights to a guitar player to accent a
solo; you can simply turn down the color
and intensity of all the fixtures not focused
on the guitarist.
Using all your faders is important for
these types of gigs. There are usually a few
key spots in a performance for some dramatic light cues that will wow an audience.
Greg needs about five special cues for certain places in the set. For instance, there are
a couple of a cappella songs that Huey does.
At this point, Greg needs a simple look that
just highlights five guys singing downstage
center. So he may move some fixtures (in
black) to a new position for these numbers
and store the look on one fader. He also
needs a spot to put in a random color chase
for the intro to a song and one audience
sweep at the end.
Additionally, you must always have
what I call a “stop cue.” These will be used
in special places. A longtime LD for an act
always knows when they’re coming, but a
locally hired LD will probably miss the cue.
These can be anything from turning everything off but one bank of lights, to hitting
the mirror ball on cue. In the case of Huey
Lewis, Greg wants to turn all the lights to
deep blue except for the Martin MACs on
the white cyc upstage. Those he wants to
bump white and move to the first gobo on
any wheel. What gobo it actually is, is not
important; it’s the effect he’s after.
He uses this cue two or three times each
night. Everything on stage stops for a split
second (no music/band stands still), then
resumes a moment later. Except during
that second, everything changes dramatically and the audience gets a visual treat.
It’s so fast that the crowd never knows
what actually happened, but they know
it was cool. Greg labels this cue “Ahhhh,”
because that’s what the audience says in
unison whenever he hits it. Especially the
40-year-old intoxicated women.
Nook Schoenfeld is a freelance lighting designer. He
can be reached at [email protected].
www.PLSN.com
100.0706.60.indd 60
6/1/07 8:22:02 AM
100.0706.ADS.indd 3
5/30/07 11:16:16 PM
100.0706.ADS.indd 4
5/30/07 11:16:45 PM

Moon Bathed in Star and Laser Light

Transcription

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