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Time to Get Organized

Time to Get Organized

The other day I was watching an episode of The Simpsons and Homer was hanging out at home.  He was at a loss as to what to do, so he grabbed the label maker and stuck labels on every item in the kitchen.  He was very thorough to the point that each egg had a label that simply said “egg.”  While this type of organizational skill is a bit over-the-top, automated lighting programmers need to be very organized and label as much as they can within their show file.  Good organizational skills lead to faster programming and easier to understand console layouts.

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Illustration by Andy Au

Not Your Dad’s Projection System

Over the last 10 years, the live entertainment business has been overrun with video panels. We have high res, low res, 6mm to 80mm, cubed-shaped and cylinder shaped — heck, they have video elements that roll up into a truss like your overhead garage door. I like to play with all of it. But the problem I notice is that, no matter how high your screen’s resolution, it never looks as good as a well-projected image.

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ZZ Top, 3 Doors Down Cancel Alabama Show Due to Stage Safety Concerns

ATMORE, AL — The “Gang of Outlaws” tour stop at the Wind Creek Casino and Amphitheater set for June 9 was cancelled due to stage safety concerns. The tour’s headliners include ZZ Top, 3 Doors Down and Gretchen Wilson. Roland Castillo of IATSE 134 San Jose, head rigger on the ZZ Top tour, was credited for canceling the show, according to a posting on the website for the Event Safety Alliance (eventsafetyalliance.org).

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Eurovision

Hippotizers Serve Eurovision Song Contest

BAKU, Azerbaijan – Battling it out for Europe’s highest vote, Green Hippo’s Hippotizers were at the core in pulling off a spectacular show at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. This year the content resolution was really pushed for LED screens with 4000 x 3000 pixels being used, along with the outputs of 6 active Hippotizer HDs genlocked together.

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Coachella

Prelite’s Previsualization Helps Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg at Coachella

INDIGO, CA – The annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, with its 24/7 schedule and desert location, poses a challenge for performers and their lighting and media crews alike.  So when the lighting designer, lighting programmer/director and media programmer for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg opted to use Prelite Studios’ previsualization services prior to the show, they gained some distinct advantages.

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Fatboy Slim

XL Video Sets the Scene for Fatboy Slim

BRIGHTON, UK – XL Video supplied 200 square meters of LED screen, cameras, crew and more to Fatboy Slim’s Fifth Beach Bootique show, which was the first entertainment event to be staged at the new Amex Community Stadium at Falmer, Brighton, UK. The wide-screen design created for the stage comprised seven screens. This was a collaborative concept evolved by Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim), creative director Tim Fleming, production manager Mark Ward and LD Steven Abbiss.

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