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Unity AB Architectural Ballast Driver from Lightronics

Lightronics Unity AB Architectural Ballast Driver

Unity AB Architectural Ballast Driver from Lightronics

The new Unity AB series from Lightronics is designed to control high efficiency lighting sources such as LED light fixtures and dimmable compact fluorescents. The AB can be ordered to control a three-wire hot-switched ballast or a four-wire 0-10VDC-type ballast. The AB is available in a three- or six-channel version with a maximum load of 20 amps per channel. Control is via a DMX-512 console or any of the Lightronics Unity architectural remote stations. Scene recall can also be accomplished using a momentary contact signal from a switch, motion sensor or similar device.

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Amon Tobin is barely visible within the 3D-mapped video surface. Image by Matthew Smith.

Amon Tobin’s ISAM Tour is Visual Innovation, Squared

Visual, musical, physical, and — let’s face it — chemical stimuli, along with butt-moving bass-heavy grooves, have been the basic ingredients of the dance scene for decades. In recent years, DJs have begun to tinker with this intoxicating formula, and have sought to enhance and intensify the power of the club experience via elaborate lighting and video design.

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Avicii at Coachella with 16-foot-high head-shaped DJ platform at Coachella 2012’s Sahara tent venue. Photo by Drew Ressler.

Interview with Ian McDaniel, Vidaroo Corporation

Ian McDaniel has had his hands full lately with heavy-duty visual support for Swedish DJ/producer Avicii.  I caught up with him recently while the tour prepped in Las Vegas to learn more about his company, and I got an inside peek at what it takes to produce enough content to fill a 62-foot-wide stage during a two-hour DJ set.

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Kontrol Surface KS-1974 MIDI Controller from Smithson Martin

Kontrol Surface KS-1974 MIDI Controller from Smithson Martin, Running Emulator Modular Software

Control is something we all love to have, and, in the entertainment industry, it seems we can never have enough.  I find that my colleagues in the sound department have issues with this, but that’s a different subject….Control over the rig is an issue that the lighting folks have had a handle on for a long time, but it seems like the more gear is added under the auspices of “media,” or LEDs, or LED panels, or the ubiquitous term “video,” the more it falls to the lighting guy/gal and their desk to actually make the stuff work.

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Willow Creek Church photo by Steve Hall-Hedrich

Houses of Worship: Training the Volunteer

Imagine a place where someone works a normal job Monday thru Friday, oftentimes working more than 40 hours and sometimes not enjoying what they’re doing. Then, when Friday evening rolls around, they grab a bite to eat and head to an auditorium to invest their entire weekend in volunteering and serving something they are crazy about. It’s definitely not describing the life of a union stagehand or a freelance LD.

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Churches Move from Mega to Mini…And That’s Good for Systems

When the megachurch trend broke wide a couple of decades ago, the news was filled with stories of ever-larger spaces converted into houses of worship. Churches like Lakewood in Houston, where over 43,000 crowd into the former NBA Rockets arena to hear Joel Osteen preach, or Willow Creek Community in South Barrington, IL (23,000-plus), North Point Community in Alpharetta, GA (also 23,000-plus) and Saddleback in Lake Forest, CA (22,000-plus) took center stage not only for their huge congregations but also for their extensive staging and systems. Saddleback’s Flying Pig Systems Wholehog 3, Vari-Lite VL2000 wash and spot fixtures, Sony DXC-537A digital cameras, Grass Valley 100 switcher and Digital Projection HIGHlite 5100gv projectors, for instance, could induce the sin of envy in many secular performance venues.

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Following Corporate Policy

I find corporate events to be an exciting genre of production for the automated lighting programmer.  Large, theatrical business meetings and presentations often come with elaborate sets and lighting rigs.  In addition, the production schedule is usually a mix of demanding work and hurry-up-and-wait moments. 

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LD Cosmo Wilson's vision for Aerosmith Global Warming tour.

Aerosmith’s Cosmo Gets His Wings, LD Susan Rose Faces the Music, Lighting Meat Loaf’s Mad World

PLSN DESIGNER Watch – by Debi Moen –
Back in 1976, when Cosmo Wilson saw his first Aerosmith show, the shiny silver PAR Cans and the power of the music burned in his brain. It looked like rock. It screamed rock. He saw them every chance he got. So when Aerosmith summoned Wilson to present designs for their Global Warming 2012 tour, Wilson reeled through the years and went retro in his design.

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Illustration by Andy Au

The Queen Extravaganza

This month finds me programming a rather cool show. It’s an Idol-type tour in which four contestants do their best to imitate Freddie Mercury while playing live with a Queen cover band. The “Queen Extravaganza” is an actual professional touring show conceptualized by founding Queen members. The show itself is quite different from any others I have done, as designer Rob Sinclair has a unique game plan and a simple set of rules that we must follow for the entire performance.

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Isaac Julien

Isaac Julian Uses projectiondesign on 9-Screen Art Install

FREDRIKSTAD, Norway – projectiondesign has supplied nine of its F32 DLP projectors to British artist Isaac Julien for his latest art installation ‘Ten Thousand Waves.’ On a worldwide tour, the exhibit landed most recently at the Norwegian Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo. Says Julien,  “When you are putting on a piece of work like this, you rely on a fantastic image. You need a certain color depth, color saturation and depth of field. Contrast ratio is also important. projectiondesign projectors give us all this and more.”

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Coldplay European Stadium leg

Martin Viper Profile Debuts on Coldplay’s Euro Tour

LONDON – Martin Professional’s new 1000 W MAC Viper Profile debuted on the first European stadium leg of Coldplay’s “Mylo Xyloto” world tour with lighting / production designer Paul Normandale. “The Vipers were used to light the LED screen fascias for which they needed to be bright and have a considerable zoom, which they did well,” Normandale said, adding that he plans to put more Viper Profiles on the rider when the tour returns to Europe in late August. Lighting vendor for the European legs is Lite Alternative while Upstaging is handling the North American leg.

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