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Mega-Lite Medusa 4X5R

Mega-Lite Medusa 4X5R

Mega-Lite Medusa 4X5R

Every once in a while, a product hits the scene that gets a lighting designer’s blood pumping. That’s because it’s a product that nobody else has even thought of making and it’s fresh and, for lack of a better description, “really cool.” Such is the case with the Medusa, a four-headed beast of a fixture from Mega-Lite that is made to provide eye candy and dazzling effects. Picture a Lazy Susan on your dining room table. Remove the food items and put small moving head beam lights spaced evenly across the outside — four individually controlled fixtures that have an incredibly bright light source (Philips Platinum 5R bulb). Then you spin the Lazy Susan. You get the idea.

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Wahlberg winches are designed to raise and lower objects weighing from 1 kg to 50 kg.

Rose Brand Steps Up their Automation Game with Wahlberg Light and Motion Products

In almost every event produced these days, the moment comes during a meeting or tech rehearsal where someone asks, “Can’t we automate that?” Most good technicians will answer, “yes, but…” Those “buts” refer to cost, complexity, time, staffing and expertise. What has been missing (until now) are products designed for easily automating the little effect — a prop or drape or lighting practical.

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Build Your Own Fixture Library

Automated lighting consoles are extremely powerful tools with very complex software. No matter how many features a console provides, one of the most essential elements is its fixture library. The library contains unique profile information about fixtures used within our industry. This information becomes the interface between the programmer and the instructions for the light (or other devices). Without proper libraries, most desks will not communicate with fixtures and devices. In some cases, it is important for a programmer to understand the process to create new or modify existing libraries. The method of creating or editing fixture libraries differs greatly between console systems, but all require a basic understanding of how a fixture library functions.

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Alice Cooper sings ‘Poison’ with his band. Photo by Leslii Stevens

Spend the Night with Alice Cooper; See You in September

LD Joel Reiff grew up listening to Alice Cooper on the radio, so he was familiar with the songs. What he had to learn to light were the stunts that Alice pulls onstage on his current tour. The “Spend the Night with Alice Cooper” tour entertains with props and gags galore, as Alice has done since the 1970s. Reiff says Cooper and his manager, Shep Gordon, create the ideas for the stunts with James Randi as one of the stunt designers.

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Illustration by Andy Au

Theater Builders of Tomorrow – Listen Up!

While touring the world, I have spent far too many hours sitting at FOH, wondering who in the world designs some of these venues. I decided that I should put my two cents in writing instead of stewing in my own disgust of poor forethought. Here are a few remarks that I would like to make to anyone who is considering designing an entertainment venue.

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The second edition will update the original Event Safety Guide, which is now offered for sale at a reduced rate.

ESA and ESTA to Meet in Las Vegas on ‘The Event Safety Guide, Second Edition’

LAS VEGAS – The Event Safety Alliance (ESA) and the Entertainment Services and Technology Association (ESTA) have agreed on a joint copyright that will allow a second edition of The Event Safety Guide to be developed as an American National Standard (ANS). To take on the project, a new working group is being created within ESTA’s Technical Standards Program (TSP) called the Event Safety Working Group (ESWG). Leading the new group will be co-chairs Dr. Donald Cooper, Executive Director of the ESA, and Richard Nix, Special Project Manager for ZFX, Inc.

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Robe Launches Spiider Worldwide on the Web

CZ – The global launch of Robe’s highly anticipated new product and “Next Big Thing” – the Spiider – will take place at www.spiider.cz tomorrow morning – Thursday 15th September 2016 at 12 noon. (CET – Central European Timezone).  following an innovative and fun teaser video and a huge amount of chatter that helped ramp excitement within lighting and visuals communities.

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Events United

Events United Texturizes Stage at Steubenville Youth Conference with Chauvet Professional Fixtures

LOWELL, MA – In 1975, Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio held a gathering for young worshippers.  The organizers of that event could scarcely have imagined that there would one day be 40 Steubenville Youth Conferences in 11 states. Nor could they have envisioned the kind of dynamic and richly textured stage presentation that engaged thousands of young people at Steubenville East, which was held recently at the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Tsongas Center.

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