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Elton John’s Million Dollar Piano

Elton John Million Dollar Piano photo by Steve Jennings

Elton John’s Million Dollar Piano

Perspectives from Patrick Woodroffe, Mark Fisher and Kevin Bye

Elton John’s Million Dollar Piano, a three-year engagement at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, is the artist’s second long-running residency show at the venue. Like the previous residency/tour, Red Piano, a key focal point is Elton’s instrument on stage, in this case a custom-built, million-dollar Yamaha piano that he has named Blossom. The Million Dollar piano has built into it LSI/Saco 3mm high resolution LED screens which feature various visual designs throughout the show. PLSN got the opportunity to discuss the show’s visual elements with LD Patrick Woodroffe, production designer Mark Fisher and lighting director Kevin “Stick” Bye.

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My Morning Jacket tour photo by Bree Kristel Clarke

GLP’s Lasting Impression

“We want to be the leading manufacturer of LED automated fixtures,” states Mark Ravenhill. “We want to maintain that goal and keep moving forward. We want to keep adapting the technology available and keep bringing products to the market that make those who light live events lives better.”

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elektraLite eye Kandy

elektraLite eye Kandy

Over the last year I have seen numerous LED products flood our industry. Each one seems to be a slightly different version of a similar light fixture. Then I took the eye Kandy from elektraLite for a test drive and was immediately impressed by the fact that I was witnessing something revolutionary. Someone had built a normal moving light, but instead of the usual lamp for a light source, the light beam comes from one bright 200 watt white LED.

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Ai Infinity Series

Ai Media Servers

The Ai Media Server family, developed through Avolites Media’s alliance with Immersive Ltd., bridges the gap between media server and video pre-viz tool in a new and powerful way. Unlike other DMX-based media servers, Ai can operate as a stand-alone server that performs a wide range of media-related tasks, including content generation, playback of multiple layers of HD content, 3D mapping and pre-visualization of the entire performance area, all on the same machine.

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» The images depict the author using MadMapper and its companion app, Mad KinnectMasker. Here, Vickie Claiborne is using a Kinnect camera with her computer, applying a graphics loop to the mask created by the KinnectMasker app.

Masking with an IR Camera

The producer of an event I am designing sent me a link to a YouTube video in which projected images had been “mapped” onto a human figure, and wanted to know how difficult it would be to achieve that effect in the show we’re creating. This request sparked a journey, and it’s evident that I still have a long way to go. But I have scratched the surface, and here are a few options that I’ve experimented with and what I’ve learned so far about a possible solution using heat-seeking IR cameras.

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The Hotel AV Sector: Poised for Growth?

On the face of it, the hotel/hospitality sector doesn’t seem like the most glamorous part of the AV business to be in. How many conferences, trade shows and product presentations have we all sat through during which our attention wandered to the fellow slouched behind the audio or lighting consoles as talking heads droned up on stage, and thought to ourselves, “It’s gotta be worse for him.” Well, that guy or girl might also be looking at a newly stirring sector for AV, one that will be facing some business challenges as the recession continues to recede but that will also be a fertile field for opportunity in the near term.

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Push Button, Get Banana

For years, scientists have used buttons to train animals and determine behaviors. The simple act of pressing a button to achieve a certain response can easily be taught to many different species. Button pressing is unassuming process that can be used in various applications to produce different results. At this very moment I am pressing combinations of 56 buttons to write this article.

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Illustration by Andy Au

Holiday Hang-Ups

Last month I once again dealt with some of my favorite, yet most feared, lighting fixtures. The dreaded Christmas lights. Sure, they look great once the darkness comes and they cast a glow over my snow-filled front yard. The view is fab when the wrapping paper clad presents are illuminated solely by the blinkety-blink emitted from the corner tree. But for some reason, getting there can be a comedy of errors.

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Hamer Hall

Vari-Lite VLXs Beam New Life into Australian Venue

MELBOURNE – A cast of Vari-Lite-VLX Wash luminaires have been installed as part of a AUD$136 million ($143 million USD) revamp of Melbourne’s Hamer Hall theatre. The technical team chose the VLX Wash luminaires following a shoot-out between the Vari-Lite fixtures and other brands.The fixture’s ability to color match with conventional luminaires was a key factor in the decision.

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