Imagine being the video and scenic designer for a one-man show – more specifically, a comedian's irreverent take on the history of the world – and that person is Colin Quinn. His director is Jerry Seinfeld, and the show is a special history lesson that lasts only 75 minutes. But you only have a couple of weeks of prep time before getting into a Broadway venue. Sounds a bit challenging, doesn't it?
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Creating OMG with Lighting and Video
If you meet and talk to Peter Morse for five minutes, you might never know what a rich history he has in the entertainment industry. He’s very modest and down to earth, and he doesn’t often drop names or bring up his many accomplishments.
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What if – just if – a lighting designer who has done plenty of club installs actually became a lounge proprietor himself?
Crazy? Crazy enough to work.
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Celine Dion has said: “If God would have a singing voice, he would sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli.” Dubbed “the world’s most beloved Italian tenor,” Andrea Bocelli has performed for political figures, the Pope, and in packed stadiums. He’s collaborated with opera’s top names and pop stars as well as Muppet puppets.
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For 40 years, London-based White Light has been supplying lighting equipment to the entertainment industry. Although manufacturing is not their primary focus, they have been building the VSFX image projector for some time. But they turned to City Theatrical to work with them in a joint venture to improve the product. According to City Theatrical president, Gary Fails, the VSFX had some "design challenges that White Light wanted to overcome."
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Many shows today involve combining multiple layers of video content, either on a single display screen or across multiple screens of various resolutions. When you're working with a media server, there are some tricks that you can take advantage of to set up the scale, aspect ratio, and X & Y position palettes to reduce the need to resize your content ahead of time. Here is a little known feature available in the Mbox EXtreme v3 that can make programming easier.
Read More »They say that economic downturns are opportunities if you have the leverage to take advantage of them. Production Resource Group (PRG), one of the biggest suppliers of entertainment and event technology systems, looks like it has done just that to broaden its reach into new markets. In January, PRG acquired New York-based AV post facility Pow! Pix.
Read More »It is very common for an automated lighting programmer to be hired to program and operate for a one-time concert. These "one-off" events are often tied to other productions such as corporate events, houses of worship, parties or music festivals. The programmer must prepare for a band they know little about and operate the lights accordingly to keep the audience and band member's interest.
Read More »Designer Watch,” a new column written by award-winning journalist Debi Moen, has nothing to do with fashion timepieces. Instead, it focuses on people and projects – “the human-interest side of the industry,” as Moen puts it. Reach her at [email protected]. She looks forward to sharing your news in her future columns. -ed.
Read More »"I got in this business so I wouldn't have to read." -Doug Heffernan, TV's "King of Queens."
In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore predicted that computers would double in power approximately every two years. His prediction became known as Moore's law.
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I got a call a few months ago from my old friend "Shakes." He has been the production manager for Kid Rock forever, it seems. And his boss is turning 40 this year. He wants to have a big party, followed by a week of rehearsals for a tour to promote his album. But he wants two distinctly different looking shows. The party was booked in Ford Field and was all about special guests and being a big party for 55,000 of his closest friends. The tour will last two years and come back to Detroit this summer to play the baseball park across the street. Hence he needed to come up with separate designs to mix it up.
Read More »LOS ANGELES – The American DJ Group has reached a settlement with Wal-Mart Stores and DBL Distributing, a division of Ingram Micro, in a trademark infringement lawsuit regarding its American Audio brand. The suit alleged that the two aforementioned companies and three other firms had wrongfully used the “American Audio” trademark in advertising, distributing and promoting audio products that were not made by or affiliated with either American DJ or American Audio.
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