Fifteenth century Italy had its Renaissance men, but we have our Renaissance machines — software and hardware in a variety of areas that will redefine the entertainment lighting industry as we know it. This year’s PLASA differed from last year’s in that there seemed to be much more change and more innovative new products. And unlike years past, there was more than LEDs and media servers.
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Although you can’t download lighting design from iTunes, in many ways it is a lot like music. So says up-and-coming lighting designer Rob Koenig. Koenig is the owner of World View Touring and he’s currently viewing the world and touring with Billy Idol. In this PLSN interview, Koenig tells us how music is like lighting design, why he prefers soft edge fixtures, and why he loves rock ‘n’ roll design.
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One of the biggest issues facing Asbury United Methodist Church a few years back was parking space. The fast growing church was severely challenged for places to put all of the cars carrying new worshipers. When Senior Pastor Dr. Tom Harrison heard that the ice rink adjacent to the church had become available, he didn’t give it much thought. Then, one day, he drove through the parking lot and started counting parking spaces. He counted 220 of them.
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LOS ANGELES — Elation Professional’s DMX-16 System functions as an expandable DMX On/Off switch controller system that includes a 16-channel DMX-16SW control panel, two 4-channel DP-415 DMX switch packs and the cables needed to link the system together.
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No sooner had Brad Paisley’s highly successful last tour, “Bonfires and Amplifiers”, come to end did he announce his next tour, The “Paisley Party.” Lighting designer and director Dean Spurlock, who has been with Paisley for about seven years, was called on to keep the 2008 Grammy Award-winner and the Academy of Country Music Top Male Vocalist of 2007 and 2008 out of the dark, with visuals that would meet Paisley’s goal of achieving his “most spectacular concert yet.”
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Dennis Sheehan has had a backstage pass to rock and roll history. For a quarter of a century he has shepherded U2 to the four corners of the globe and back again. Prior to that, he assisted Led Zeppelin on their historic tours. The one-time professional guitarist has also served a host of acts including Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Siouxie and the Banshees and members of the Sex Pistols, among many others.
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Shakespeare & Company was running out of space. The theatre company, founded in 1978 with a mission of combining the strengths of classical British and American acting, first secured residency in the turn-of-the-century estate that was home to writer Edith Wharton, then in 2000 expanded to 30 acres with multiple buildings one mile away in Lenox, Mass.
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Some people get themselves stuck in a rut. Erykah Badu is not one of them. Her music bridges multiple genres, she sports an astonishing array of couture and hair styles and she’s not afraid to change the name of her tour or the look of the set two weeks into the tour. The 2008 tour, in support of her most recent album, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War), started off as the New Amerykah tour, but became known as the Vortex Tour to reflect, as Badu reportedly put it, “a swirling cloud of energy that sucks everything into its orbit.”
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On the surface, the latest version of Vectorworks computer-aided design, visualization and rendering software may not look as if it has had a radical upgrade, but when you replace the 3D modeling engine with a new kernel, there’s a good argument for saying so.
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Bandit Lites got its start when founder and chairman Michael Strickland was just 12 years old. In the early years, Strickland would have to “borrow” the lights from a local high school theatre to light the Monkees, the Beach Boys and other bands of the 1960s — hence the name. Today, Strickland’s company has emerged as a global leader in the entertainment lighting industry, with offices in Knoxville, Nashville, San Francisco, the U.K., Hong Kong and Taiwan, and while the company is still called Bandit Lites, Strickland no longer scours local high schools for gear.
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BOSTON — Anolis ArcLine Outdoor Optic LED strips have been installed into Paul Oakenfold’s custom rolling riser DJ platform, which has been used for his opening sets on Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet world tour stadium shows.
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LONDON — Baz Halpin, LD for the current tour for Queen + Paul Rodgers, was looking to create a “good, old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll lighting show,” but with the kind of consistency in color that wasn’t always available with the monster rigs of yesteryear. He opted to include 80 Coemar Infinity Wash XL lights to meet the challenge.
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