“Buy me a seat at the opera house. I don’t care if it’s Mozart or Strauss.” —from “Take Me Out to the Opera”
Today, when most people think about opera (if they think about it at all), they envision an elegant night out with fancy clothes, jewels and a stuffy be-on-your-best-behavior attitude. That’s how it is in the movies, and even sometimes in real life.
Read More »
The Beijing Summer 2008 Olympics may have been destined to be controversial, and it didn’t take long for the Games to spark public debate. One of the earliest flashpoints centered on what took place — and didn’t — during the opening seconds of the opening ceremony. Leading up to the dramatic, drummed countdown at 8:08 p.m. on Aug. 8, 2008, viewers at home and on giant screens inside the National Stadium, aka the Bird’s Nest, watched as 29 giant footprints outlined in fireworks proceeded gloriously above the city from Tiananmen Square to the 29th Olympiad.
Read More »
When the price of fuel began its dizzying ascent a few years ago, few of us could have predicted the far reaching implications. But it might not have been so difficult to predict that the truck pack would become more important than ever, especially for those of us who have to pay the fuel bills. Upstaging, Inc., who is planted firmly both in the lighting and trucking side of the business, understands as well as anyone the implications. That’s one of the motivating reasons that they helped develop the new High-Performance Utility Design (HUD) Truss.
Read More »A good automated lighting programmer will always prepare for the tasks at hand long before the trucks are loaded. Most lighting companies will prepare the fixtures, cables, truss and more prior to the first load-in. In the same manner, an automated lighting programmer should prepare the show file and console configuration before arriving on site. There are many important procedures and provisions that you should follow when you are beginning a new project.
Read More »That giant sound you heard coming from Europe last month was the falling expectation that the world would come to an end when they started the Large Hardon Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. It turns out that fears of the collider destroying the world through the production of microscopic black holes never materialized. What did materialize was an anticlimactic flip of the switch that started the collider — not that you would have noticed had the press not been there. In the long term, what is learned from these particle collisions could change the way we view the world. In the short term… yawn… stretch… yawn.
Read More »“To most outsiders, modern mathematics is unknown territory… a mass of indecipherable equations and incomprehensible concepts. Few realize that the world of modern mathematics is rich with vivid images and provocative ideas.”
— Ivars Peterson, Mathematical Association of America
DENVER — The Democratic National Convention (DNC), which took place at the end of August, was in not one but two Denver landmarks, the Pepsi Center, shown here, and Invesco Field, home to the Denver Broncos. Two venues meant that Production Resource Group (PRG), which provided both lighting and scenery for this year’s DNC, would need to coordinate, assemble, construct and deliver two massive sets and two complete lighting systems, each facing strict deadlines for load-in and load-out.
Read More »CARLSTADT, NJ — City Theatrical, a company that designs, develops and manufactures wireless DMX equipment, has been granted U.S. Patent number 7,432,803 for its wireless technology, which covers the transmission of DMX, RDM, and ACN via the means of FHSS (frequency hopping spread spectrum) radios as well as DHSS (direct sequence spread spectrum) radios, in the 2.4 GHz range. Also covered are the bi-directional broadcast of data, and the concept of a remote monitor for RDM and ACN.
Read More »
KRISTIANSAND, Norway — Moving lights and LEDs are brightening up Spot, a multi-zone nightclub that opened here recently. Over 600 Anolis LED fixtures and Robe moving lights have been installed in the two-story, 400-capacity venue.
Read More »
SANDHURST, U.K. — Large-format projection joined the fireworks, orchestra and chorus for the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst’s 2008 “Music on Fire” extravaganza. The biannual three-day mixed-media event and “Firework Prom” attracted up to 10,000 visitors per night to the main training center for British Army officers, with proceeds going to the Army Benevolent Fund.
Read More »
LISBURN, Northern Island — A destination for fans of Irish linen, with perhaps a few lost tourists seeking the capital of Portugal, Lisburn offers a variety of live performances from the Island Theatre, which recently invested in an Avolites Pearl Tiger lighting console.
Read More »SAN ANTONIO, TX — Glenn C. Martin III, president of Texas Scenic Company, announced his departure as the second phase of an ownership change within the company proceeds. “Five years ago, we began a program to transfer ownership of Texas Scenic Company to our strongest asset, our employees. This transition began with the sale of my family’s stock to the employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). The next step was for my shares to join my family’s,’” Martin said.
Read More »