AUSTIN, TX — It’s become an annual challenge for Pyrotek Special Effects’ Doug Adams: how to top the “Wow” factor generated by the previous year’s pyro design for the Trans Siberian Orchestra tour. “Talks of new designs and proposals start literally after the completion of each year’s tour,” said Adams, who worked with TSO founder Paul O’Neill, LD Bryan Hartley and lighting programmer Nick Militello on the 2008/2009 tour.
Read More »Three-phase distribution is very common, because it saves money. It takes about 25 percent less copper to transmit the same amount of power…But it’s virtually… Read More »Three-Phase Power and a Bozo-Proof Solution
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NEW YORK — Element Labs, Inc and Niles Creative Group are holding an open house at the Niles Creative Group studio Jan. 19-23. Products and design ideas for both companies, like the design for the Marco Borsato concert by Element Labs, shown here, will be part of the open house. Private sessions are also available. For more information, attendees can RSVP by email at [email protected].
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*Ranked by Billboard Magazine, according to total sales, Nov. 14, 2007-Nov. 11, 2008
1. Bon Jovi's Lost Highway Tour
Lighting Co: Ed & Ted’s Excellent Lighting (now Epic Production Technologies)
CREW
Performance Environment Designer: Doug “Spike” Brant
Show Director/Executive Producer: Justin Collie
Lighting Director: Pat Brannon
Lighting Crew Chief: Storm Sollars
Lighting Crew: Jason Bridges, Greg Walker, Trevitt Cromwell, Chris Keen
Set Company: Tait Towers
Rigging Director: Mike Farese
Video Director: Tony Bongiovi
Video Suppliers: Kosher Pixels, Nocturne Productions
LD Greg Russell walked into the newly-named Oak Ridge Boys Theatre in Branson, Mo. last year with the words of the owners ringing in his ears. “They wanted to have the biggest, baddest lighting system that we could get,” he recalls. “They weren’t going to spare any expense to get it done.”
While that was good news for Russell, he also had good news for them after a quick look around the venue formerly known as the Glen Campbell Theatre. He discovered that much of the lighting and rigging gear that was installed in 1994 was useable, including almost 500 channels of ETC Sensor dimming.
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Lincoln Maynard leads a double life as an artist and general manager of Scenic Technologies for PRG.
Adorning the walls of PRG’s Las Vegas offices are photographs of flashy sets from famous shows and concerts — the Billboard Music Awards, VH1 Rock Honors and Criss Angel: Believe, to name a few. They showcase decades worth of work on the Las Vegas Strip and across the country. Photographs of sets the company has built, however, aren’t the only works of art on display. They share the space with paintings by artist Lincoln Maynard, who also happens to be general manager of PRG Scenic Technologies.
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One of the most important lighting design tools to emerge in the post-automated lighting era is lighting design software. The first to market was the WYSIWYG suite of CAD, paperwork, rendering, and visualization software for lighting designers and programmers. Eighteen years after version 1.0 comes the latest release from Cast Software, Release 23, and it represents a major step forward in terms of real-time visualization, detail, and quality of rendering.
Read More »Last month I was hired to program the COTT 2008 music awards on the Caribbean island of Trinidad. While the initial concept and plan for the show was very straightforward, there were many surprises that left me well equipped with material to write about the experience. The show was a typical awards-style TV shoot with five cameras, a podium, and twelve musical numbers. I was in control of automated lights, LEDs, media servers, and more. Conventionals were controlled from another console. The LD had done this show the year before but could not attend this year because his pregnant wife was due any day. So it was up to me and the superb crew to help the locals make this show spectacular.
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Looking for a recession-proof market sector? That joint near the tracks with all the neon might be a good pace to start. This particularly pernicious economic climate is chipping away at the entertainment-related areas of business that putatively do well in recessions: film box office results are flat, video game sales are down slightly and music sales — fuhgedaboudit.
Read More »“Know the light, but keep the shadow.”—Tao saying
Three-phase power distribution systems are very common around the world for a couple of reasons; they save money, and…I forget the other reasons.
Three-phase distribution saves money because it takes less copper to transmit the same amount of power with a three-phase system than with a single-phase system. In fact, it takes about 25 percent less copper to transmit the same amount of power with a three-phase three-wire delta system as with a single-phase three-wire system because the conductors need only be half the cross sectional area. And with a three-phase four-wire system it takes even less copper — about 66 percent less than with a single-phase three-wire system.
Read More »‘Tis the season of trade show lighting. And whether you are starting to design the lighting for your client’s booth or you are already on site, you must make sure to put some thought into bringing a box of lighting accessories; you know, those little things good designers can’t live without.
Read More »Elation Architectural’s new ELAR Image X image projector features a 32-watt xenon lamp source with a color temperature of 6,000K and an average lamp life of 3,000 hours. It is available in two versions: the ELAR Image X with stationary projection and the ELAR Image XR with rotating projection. Both versions accept metal and glass gobos with an O.D. of 37.5mm and an image diameter of 20mm. Each is supplied with a four-foot power cord. The MSRP of the ELAR Image X is $419.95. The MSRP of the ELAR Image X is $479.95.
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