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Voyaging in the Video Age

Voyaging in the Video Age

It’s cruise ship month here at PLSN, and I’m onboard. When the Swami called to give me my marching orders, I found myself staring at the bow of the Carnival Liberty.

I want to be very clear on this next statement.

This is a very big boat.

Actually, that’s not right. I don’t think I’m allowed to call it a boat. Let’s start over.

This is an extremely large ship.

How large, you ask? How about three football fields? That do anything for you? Nine hundred fifty-two feet long, and 116 feet at its widest, the newest addition to Carnival Cruise Line’s fleet tips the scales at 110,000 tons.

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Who Are All Those People…And What Are They Doing at the Tech Table?

All year long, as shows go up and come down, designers are continuously busy working on various projects, including current shows, future shows and completely unrelated things, like having a life. So how, you may ask, does all the work get done? This is a story about the people whose job it is to not only achieve the goals set forth by designers, but to anticipate and overcome any obstacles along the way. These are “the facilitators,” the associate and assistant designers who act as intermediaries between the heads and technicians and other departmental representatives. These are the people who get down to the nitty-gritty of the show, realize creative ideas and get the problems solved so that the show can go on.

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New Products for April

American DJ P36 LED Blinder/P64 LED Blinder
American DJ’s P36 LED Blinder and P64 LED Blinder combine multiple LED fixtures onto one unit. The P36 LED Blinder comprises eight P36 LED pinspots, while the P64 LED Blinder has four P64 LED PARs. They can be set up either on the floor or mounted on American DJ’s LTS-6 lighting stand. The RGB color-mixing fixtures have low power consumption, long life, produce little heat and are DMX-compatible; they can operate with any DMX-512 controller. Both units offer direct DMX connection with no external components required. The MSRP of the P36 LED Blinder is $799.95 and the P64 LED Blinder is $999.95.

American DJ • 800.322.6337 • www.americandj.com

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New Products for March

ETC Enhanced Definition Lens Tubes
ETC is introducing new Source Four field angles, including 14˚, 70˚ and 90˚. The new 14˚ Source Four provides an intermediate-throw field angle to fill the gap between the 10˚ and 19˚ fixtures. Short-throw applications such as blackbox theaters and dance lighting will benefit from the 70˚ and 90˚ Source Fours. The Source Four Enhanced Definition Lens Tube (‘EDLT’) option was introduced at LDI 2005 and will soon be available in 19˚, 26˚, 36˚ and 50˚ field angles. The EDLT enhances gobo projections in both HPL and HID-equipped fixtures.

Electronic Theatre Controls • 800.688.4116 • www.etcconnect.com

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And You May Ask Yourself, Who Am I?

Lately, I’ve been trying to figure out what my actual job is. For the last 20 years, I thought I was a lighting designer. After this week, I’ve pretty much realized that I am not just an LD; I wear a whole lot of hats at gigs. And I’ve been doing this more and more over the last five years, so much so that I am at a loss for words when trying to describe my title.

Let’s face reality: Video elements have become implanted on most touring shows and all the industrial shows I work on. If you’re an LD and you haven’t jumped on this wagon yet, you’re late. I am not a huge fan of all this technology. I still prefer good theatrically- lit scenes as opposed to high-tech gadgetry, but I would be ignorant to ignore it. It’s fun. But why am I picking and choosing video content, let alone creating it now?

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The Dark Side of LEDs

Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot, see the path that demands your whole being.
Leave that which is not, but appears to be, seek that which is, but is not apparent.
– Rumi

When I was in junior high and high school, my friends and I used to build our own surfboards in our backyards and garages. We would buy the foam blanks and shape them with sanders. In a matter of minutes, we would be covered from head to toe in white foam powder, but in a few hours a beautiful shape would emerge. Then we would put designs on them and cover them with fiberglass cloth and resin. When the resin hardened, we would sand them smooth and put a few more coats of resin on, and when it dried, we’d have a brand new “stick.”

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WYSIWYG Production Design Suite

When Cast Software launched WYSIWYG, a lighting-only design software tool, in 1994, it was new, innovative and the only one of its kind. Today, there is no shortage of competition for the Toronto-based company, but that hasn’t slowed them down. And now, they have supplemented their offerings to cover new segments within the entertainment industry. As of September 2005, WYSIWYG, which is now being called a “Production Design Suite of Tools,” delivered Release 14, which, among other things, adds the ability to showcase all types of video content in the 3-D virtual world. Cast continues to crank out new software updates on an aggressive three-month schedule aimed at fulfilling the longterm vision of creating a fast, easy solution to all production designs. The latest update, Release 16, introduces “moving scenery.”

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Happy Friggin’ Birthday!

In 1988, I had the chance to go to Cascais, Portugal, on my 29th birthday no less, with a group for which I was LD’ing. I should have known when the airline lost all of my luggage that I was in for a bad trip.

The show was to be broadcast “live” on Portuguese national radio. When I showed up to focus and program, I discovered the lighting rig was only half set up, and there were no local lighting personnel anywhere in the building. As I walked around checking out the rig, I also noticed that the power to the dimmers was not connected properly. I found this out the hard way when I got a nice electrical jolt to my left hand. When the crew finally did show up two hours later, the first thing I did was to let the head electrician know of the problem. He informed me that I was completely wrong and he refused to double-check his work.

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