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My First Time Programming

My First Time Programming

Hello, my name is Matthew Schiller, Brad’s son, and I have taken over my dad’s column to tell you about my first programming experience.  Although I have played with automated lights and consoles all my life, I only recently programmed a full production.  My high school in Austin, Texas put on a production of Miss Saigon, and I was assigned the position of automated lighting programmer for the show.

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Demi Lovato tour photo by Cory FitzGerald

Demi Lovato’s Neon Lights; TV/Film/Video Talk

Cory FitzGerald is the production designer for Demi Lovato’s Neon Lights tour. “The set is based on a neon-like concept full of Video Blades in smoke colored covers — which are essentially tubes of single pixel video elements diffused by the plastic covers. We also used a phone app developed by Wham City Lights to let the audience participate in that song. It was very cool!”

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Illustration by Andy Au

Lights that Battle Video

For years, lighting designers have been matching lumens between the lighting and video elements. The video was always brighter. For most of my life, I have had to design live concerts by placing the lighting fixtures, and aiming their focal points, wherever the video wasn’t. It became a science to be able to design lighting that wasn’t washed out by the big TV upstage center. In the last couple years, much of that has suddenly changed. That’s because we lighting guys now have some powerful weapons in our fight against video dominance.

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Sew What? YouTube Channel to Feature Lesser-Known Musicians

RANCHO DOMINGUEZ, CA — Megan Duckett, president of Sew What? Inc., notes that while the company’s websites have highlighted the use of the company’s products by big-name artists — including, for 2013, Rod Stewart, Sheryl Crow, Kelly Clarkson, John Mayer, Katy Perry, Gwen Stefani, James Taylor, and Alice in Chains — the company plans to feature talented but lesser-known artists in its 2014 marketing efforts, starting with guitarist Rich Cole and his latest recording, “The 13th Hour.”

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Kneehigh Theatre's Brief Encounter Relies on ETC Gear

Kneehigh Theatre’s “Brief Encounter” Relies on ETC Gear

WASHINGTON, DC — The Kneehigh Theatre production of Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter is making a lasting acquaintance with ETC gear — including the Source Four Revolutions and profiles driven by an Eos Ti console for a late 2013 run of shows down under and the more recent adoption of Source Four LED Lustr+ units for a bicoastal string of U.S. shows this year. (The production was staged at the Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills from Feb. 15-March 23 and the Shakespeare Theater’s Lansburgh Theatre in Washington, D.C. from March 29-April 13.)

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Pearl Jam onstage. Photo by Karen Loria

Pearl Jam Tour Includes SGM X-5 Strobes

SEATTLE — For Pearl Jam’s 2013 Lightning Bolt tour, which wrapped up here in December before heading to Australia for a series of shows in January and February, LD Kille Knobel got her first chance to use SGM’s X-5 white LED strobes in the rig.

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OneRepublic Shows in U.K., Ireland Lit with Clay Paky B-EYEs, Sharpys

OneRepublic’s U.K./Ireland Shows Lit with Clay Paky B-EYEs, Sharpys

DUBLIN — OneRepublic’s headlining “Native Tour,” which completed its shows in the U.K. and Ireland on March 24 after spending last year circling the globe, was the first tour to utilize Clay Paky’s A.leda B-EYE K20 LED-based moving lights.  A complement of Clay Paky Sharpys was also on hand.  Neg Earth supplied the gear for the Colorado Springs, CO-based band.

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coolux will present their new 3G Broadcast QUAD Server system at the 2014 NAB Show

coolux Broadcast QUAD Server at NAB

coolux will present their new 3G Broadcast QUAD Server system at this year’s NAB Show, along with a variety of new hardware accessories. The new Pandoras Box Broadcast Server offers TV pros a QUAD 3G HD-SDI output solution. The server features 2x low latency 3G HD-SDI inputs.

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