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DMX Control for Trade Show Visuals

Mockup demo for the booth using DL.3’s featuring stock content backgrounds overlaid with the custom Starz logo.

DMX Control for Trade Show Visuals

DMX has come a long way. These days, in addition to stage lighting, a DMX interface can be used to control the entire performance environment — everything from audio and video to automation. But its uses aren’t limited to a concert or theatre stage. DMX can also be used by those looking to control — and synchronize — trade show booth components from a single source.

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A.C.T Lighting Gets Its New Act Together

It’s early June as this is written, and I’m still not sure why I haven’t already followed my own advice and bailed on the markets on the June 1 D-Day that my gut had been forecasting. As if they had coordinated their schedule with the my acid reflux, the economic barometers began reflecting the perfect storm of a housing market with no buyer incentives, the ending of the second round of quantitative easing and a negative jobs report. But despite the growing panic in the back of CNBC’s collective throat, I’m still on board a shaky ship, wanting to believe that, to paraphrase Hunter Thompson, when the going gets weird, the weird double down.

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Learning to Park

When I was 15 years old and learning to drive, the big challenge was to parallel park. This skill was required in order to gain a license. I did very well and passed my test, but now I very rarely ever have to parallel park my car. On rare occasions, I find myself confronted with the task, and usually I do well as I ease the car nicely into its slot. This is only possible because I had previously learned the procedures for parking. In a similar manner, automated lighting programmers are sometimes required to use a console feature commonly known as “park.” This feature can be very handy in many situations during both programming and playback.

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Communicating Globally

¿Habla usted español? If not, you may want to try. At least for a few key phrases.

The Spanish-speaking population in the U.S. has topped 50 million — 16.3 percent of the total, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. Projections by researchers such as Cuban linguist Humberto Lopez Morales also indicate that, by 2050, 10 percent of the world will speak Spanish, double the English-speaking population, while percentages for French and German decline to 1.4 and 1.2 percent.

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John Rossi

John Rossi, Monkees’ Head LD

Reflections on Reunion Tour after Rendezvous with Brain Surgery

Hooked up to an IV flowing with pain medication, LD John Rossi is recovering from back surgery. He has just designed The Monkees’ 45th anniversary tour and still manages to email back and forth with me to do an interview about this design. It is his first show design since his other big surgery — for a brain tumor — in November 2007. One wonders, can’t the guy get a break? For Rossi, this IS his break: back in to the world of concert design.

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Illustration by Andy Au

Tech Support

I’ve worked shows in clubs all around the world. Most of them have an in-house lighting system. With that comes at least one tech who knows how his system operates. Or we would like to think he does. Clubs usually do not possess a lot of state-of-the-art fixtures, nor fixtures with all of their parameters functioning correctly. Half of the time I will have a console I know little about. So I am dependent on my local lighting guy. And it’s uncanny how little some of these professionals know about their own gear.

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Michael B. (Mike) Healy

In Memoriam: Michael B. Healy

RICHMOND, VA — Michael B. Healy, a founding member of The Healy Group, a leading manufacturer’s rep firm serving the music, lighting and consumer electronics industries, passed away suddenly on June 26. He was 59. The Healy Group has represented American DJ, American Audio, Elation Professional, Acclaim Lighting, Global Truss and Arriba Cases on the East Coast for over a decade, along with other brands.

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