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Creative Sparks: Pyrotecnico Hosts PyroFest 2016

Pyrotecnico’s 'Prism' at PyroFest 2016 was a Memorial Day weekend showcase for fireworks, flames and other special effects. Photo by Doug Van Sant.

Creative Sparks: Pyrotecnico Hosts PyroFest 2016

This past Memorial Day, more than 12,000 people at Cooper’s Lake campground in Western Pennsylvania attended PyroFest 2016, where they were treated to a celebration featuring two-days of fireworks and pyrotechnical special effects. Now in its fifth year, the event is hosted by New Castle, PA-based Pyrotecnico, a still-family-owned business that has been working with fireworks since 1889. New Castle is known as the “Fireworks Capital of America,” so there’s no better place to stage this spectacular annual showcase.

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Environment space for Nintendo players. Photo by Jeff Granbery.

E3 and Lightswitch: Long Time Runnin’

Once upon a time, by the sea in a western land called L.A., before the creation of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), there was a gathering called the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Great in size and broad in scope, much confusion reigned, for the leaders who ran it had no idea about what do about a village of “video games.” The video game players would gaze on the latest innovations in car alarms, refrigerators, stereos, and telephones imploring in despair, “Where are our games?”

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Chroma-Q Inspire in use at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in Kansas City, MO. Photo by Emmalee Schaumburg

Enhancing the Worship Experience with LED Fixtures

LED lighting has been around for at least a decade now. While interest in LED fixtures has always been high, the performance has often been lacking, causing potential adopters to hold back on making the transition, or ending up with a lighting rig with issues. In recent years, however, LED lighting has given house of worship lighting designers the brightness, control, and color options they had been seeking to bring their worship services to life.

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Northwoods Community Church in Peoria, IL upgraded its lighting, rigging and projection systems. Photo courtesy Northwoods.

At Northwoods Community Church, a Total Systems Upgrade

While the technical systems at Northwoods Community Church, located in Peoria, IL, were adequate for most services, there was no room for growth and little flexibility. To improve, the church upgraded or replaced almost all of their technical systems. Matt Hemmele, Northwoods’ Technical Director, walks us through their technical systems along with Graeme Brown, president of Peoria, IL-based Advanced Audio and Lighting Systems, who handled all of the lighting, video, and audio work for the project.

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PLSN Buyers Guide on Automated Consoles

Automated Consoles

It’s been more than 20 years since the first consoles designed to run automated lighting fixtures appeared on the market. Proprietary consoles for running certain companies’ light fixtures were available in the 1980s, but it took a while for someone to invent consoles that could spit out DMX and run any automated fixture as well as dimmers. Early on, there was the Whole Hog1, Scan Commander, Light Coordinator, Animator and the Status Cue to start the long learning curve. Here, we have more than a dozen top-of-the-line consoles listed. They are available to meet the needs of users with a wide range of features and price points. This month, as a bonus, we also reached out to more than a half-dozen LDs to get their perspective on the favorite features and functions of a sampling of different consoles.

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Washington DC was among the cities that organized vigils in support of the victims of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting. Photo by Ted Eytan.

The New Normal

Bumping into an old tour mate and uttering a single word can recall a whole slew of events about a day, venue, person or even an entire tour. This shorthand form of communication develops out of the day-to-day way efficient and expeditious crews talk to one another as a tour progresses.

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LED video displays within the Tokyo Dome make use of Macroblock's technology.

Macroblock

Importance of LED Driver ICs Increases with Demand for Quality Screens

Macroblock, an LED driver IC (integrated circuit) manufacturer founded in June of 1999 in Hsinchu, Taiwan, is a maker of everything related to LED applications. Lately, they’ve been expanding into live events by creating products for LED displays that are getting noticed in a big way. They developed the world’s first 16-bit PWM (pulse-width modulation) embedded LED driver with patented S-PWM technology, which they showed off at a little show called the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.

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Beasts of Mayhem perform at Heavy Metal concert in Columbia Pictures' ‘Ghostbusters’. Photo courtesy Sony Pictures.

‘Ghostbusters’ Calls In LD Michael Baldassari for Heavy Metal Concert Scene

For the reboot version of Ghostbusters, which opened on July 15, 2016, director Paul Feig brought together a new team of Ghostbusters in Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. As ghosts and slime threaten to take over the city, they fight it with comic, and at times, chaotic efforts. When the team get their first call to capture an actual ghost it is at a heavy metal concert. For this key scene, the film’s director of photography, Robert Yeoman, ASC and gaffer John Vecchio knew they wanted a concert LD involved but needed someone that could mix the concert lighting with their film lighting. They called on LD Michael Baldassari, who has lit sequences for movies including Rock of Ages, Nine and Sex and the City 2.

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Straight Outta Comp Tix

“It doesn’t hurt to ask.” Taken literally, this well-known phrase implies we should always ask for what we want. However, if you’re a professional and/or over the age of seven, you should know that if you ask the wrong way, it could damage your reputation and limit your ability to ever ask the same question again.

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ChamSys MagicQ and other consoles now use the CITP protocol to display thumbnails of video content.

Lighting Console and Media Server Convergence

As media servers continue to develop features geared toward working with LED fixtures, lighting consoles are beginning to add in tools that address the unique challenges that programmers encounter while programming both lighting and video. As this convergence of lighting and video continues to evolve, the toolsets continue to evolve as well. Here’s a look at some of those tools.

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Robert Juliat Dalis 860

Robert Juliat Dalis 860

You probably recognize the name of the France-based lighting manufacturer, Robert Juliat, for their followspots. The company has now developed a purpose-built cyclorama wash light, the Dalis 860. (It’s spelled differently, but pronounced just like the city in Texas.) The fixture boasts a double row of 24 LEDs, an eight color mixing system and a new rigging method. Let’s dig a little deeper to see what makes this unit so innovative.

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