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Obscure Fixture Features

Obscure Fixture Features

Automated lighting fixtures are very complex robotic devices filled with mechanical and electrical features commanded by comprehensive software. The manufacturers of these fixtures fill them with many useful features, some of which are lesser known or understood. A good automated lighting programmer will take the time to learn the capabilities of his/her luminaires by reading the user manuals and DMX protocols/maps. Furthermore, some features are simple menu settings or DMX values that may not be included in the console’s fixture library. The following obscure fixture features can be found in many common lighting fixtures and are useful tools for creating original and dynamic lighting programming.

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Trans Siberian Orchestra's latest tour, The Christmas Attic

Holiday Tours in Full Swing; Black Jacket Symphony’s Thriller; Quick Cues and More

Holiday tours are spreading multimedia magic across the country. Production designer Bryan Hartley has reimagined a new look for the annual Trans-Siberian Orchestra tour, which again runs an identical East and West Coast leg Nov. 13-Jan 4, 2015. Hartley could hardly contain his excitement, telling PLSN, “My new design and concept for this year show and story is probably the best thing I’ve done. It really is a masterpiece! It is my favorite design.”

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LD at Large

Back to Front

Ever since grade school, I’ve been one of those people who preferred to ride in the back of the bus. Even when I was on tour, I always seemed to get my sanctuary hanging in the back of the bus, working or reading. Of course spending hours on the road, solving the problems of the world over a couple of beers with the rest of the road crew often required time in the back lounge. Likewise, I spent the last eight years feeling quite at home occupying the back page of PLSN. You had to look all the way in the rear to find me.

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2014 Parnelli Awards Gala Filled with Emotion, Surprises. Fee Waybill served as emcee for the gala.

2014 Parnelli Awards Gala Filled with Emotion, Surprises

LAS VEGAS – It was Vegas, after all, so the bet was on. “We were all voting when Benny [Collins] would start crying, and I said he wouldn’t make it through the introduction, and I won,” laughs production professional and friend Steve Thomas. Thomas, with Michael Ahern, presented the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award to Collins, the live event industry’s highest honor. Collins took the stage choked up and shed some tears in giving his appreciation to all he’s worked with and made friends with over the years. It was a fitting end to an evening filled with emotions, laughs and tears.

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Zimmerman Advertising's Z Lights Up with Iluminarc in South Florida

Zimmerman Advertising’s Z Glows with Iluminarc Fixture in South Florida

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Zimmerman Advertising, an ad agency with a client list that includes CBS, Office Depot, ADT, Dunkin Donuts, among other national and international brands, applied its bold marketing strategy to its own home office by creating an three-story image on the building’s façade, visible from I-95. It features a bright red reproduction of the Zimmerman “Z,” with a single Iluminarc Ilumipanel 180 IP LED fixture adding to the visibility of the giant letter. Sound and Lighting Solutions installed the fixture.

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PR Lighting XLED 3007

PR Lighting XLED 3007

PR Lighting has extended its XLED series with the release of the XLED 3007. Containing seven LEDs (4 in 1 RGBW), each rated at 20W, this is a larger version of the XLED 2007 and features a 6:1 zoom — one of many similar functions it shares with the company’s successful XLED 3019. And crucially, each LED is individually controllable.

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LD Seth Jackson Includes Robe CycFX 8s in Alice Cooper Tour Rig. Tour photo by Steve Jennings

LD Seth Jackson Includes Robe CycFX 8s in Alice Cooper Tour Rig

SPOKANE, WA — LD Seth Jackson recently used 14 of Robe’s CycFX 8 fixtures on the upstage truss for Alice Cooper’s Raise The Dead ’tour, which also included a number of dates as special guests on Mötley Crüe’s All Bad Things Must Come To An End farewell tour. The CycFX 8 units traveled in Tyler Truss sections and were used for scenarios where space was too tight onstage for any ground-rows to up-light the backdrop … as well as to provide a unique reveal ensuring Cooper’s show had its own distinctive look and feel. The CycFX 8s were supplied by Bandit Lites.

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Project LA Nightclub Lights Up with Martin VC-Strips

Project LA Lights Up with Martin VC-Strips

LOS ANGELES — The original spot for the 1980s/1990s nightclub, The Roxbury, the namesake for the Will Ferrel-Chris Kattan film, A Night at the Roxbury, is now occupied by a new meeting space, Project LA. (The Roxbury’s owner has since reopened another club, also called the Roxbury, at a different location a few miles away). For Project A, V Squared Labs’ Vello Virkhaus provided a design that includes Martin VC-Strips.

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