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‘1984:’ Feeding The Machine

'1984' photos by Julieta Cervantes

‘1984:’ Feeding The Machine

The play 1984 has shocked audiences on Broadway with a mind-bending stage adaptation of the famous George Orwell novel that predicted our grim future. Perhaps that is why, in these tumultuous times, it has resonated with people; that, and the graphic torture scenes which have allegedly caused heart palpitations for some audience members. A big part of the show’s intensity emerges through Tom Gibbons’ jackhammer sound design and Tim Reid’s essential video design, which both creates intimacy for key off stage scenes, and a sense of disorientation and danger for some disturbing moments.

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OneRepublic 2017 tour photo by Todd Kaplan

OneRepublic Develops a Look

When opportunity knocked for Mark Butts and Raj Kapoor to work with OneRepublic, two things made them open that door: The prospect to work in the rock genre, and the chance to provide visual direction for a young band. “Raj and I work together often, and we’ve always wanted to do a really bad-ass rock show, so we could approach things a little differently than we normally do,” says production/lighting designer Butts. “Someone like Kenny Chesney knows what he’s looking for, but something like this is fun because it’s a blank slate.”

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Green Day 'Revolution Radio' Tour 2017 photo by Steve Jennings

Green Day ‘Revolution Radio’ Tour 2017

We caught up with production and lighting designer Ethan Weber and lighting director and programmer Tommy Horton for Green Day’s hometown show in Oakland, CA. Although the band has been playing mostly in arenas and sheds for their Revolution Radio tour, this show, staged on Aug. 5 at Oakland, CA’s Alameda County Coliseum, is one of the band’s stadium gigs. The tour, in support of Green Day’s Sept. 2016 album by the same name, is a 120-show trek that launched Sept. 26, 2016, one day after the album’s debut. Since then, the Revolution Radio tour has included multiple legs in North America and Europe along with a series of shows in Australia and New Zealand. After a performance at the Global Citizen Festival in New York’s Central Park on Sept. 23, the band heads to South America and Mexico for a series of shows this November.

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The church has gained members by taking some risks.

H.O.W. Production Profile: Eagle Brook Church

Dynamic Lighting and Video Production Helps Minnesota Mega-Church Visuals Soar

Eagle Brook Church is the largest house of worship in the state of Minnesota, in terms of attendance and size. The church’s six campuses in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area have a combined average attendance of more than 17,000, and that number can exceed 22,000 for non-holiday weekends. During Christmas services last year, more than 48,000 attended the holiday services.

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EastPoint Christian Church is now among the largest churches in Maine. They recently opened a church campus in a 92,000-square-foot former big box store in South Portland, Maine.

H.O.W. Wide Focus: EastPoint Christian Church

Events United Helps EastPoint Christian Church Turn a Big Box Retail Outlet Into a Mega Church Campus with Lighting and Video

First-time visitors driving to EastPoint Christian Church can be forgiven if they think their GPS suddenly went haywire. There on their right is the sprawling Maine Mall; and over there is The Home Depot, followed by a Best Buy. Driving along, they might wonder, “Can this land of big box retailers be home to a house of worship?” Indeed it can be, especially if that church is as forward looking and diversified in its mission as EastPoint Christian.

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The church turned to Paragon 360 for an assist with their visual transformation.

H.O.W. Installations: South Haven Baptist Church

Missouri Church’s Modern Lighting Upgrade Creates Warm Family Vibe

A couple of years ago, South Haven Baptist Church in Springfield, MO faced up to a challenge. Its lighting was outdated and uneven. Sight lines in the sanctuary made it difficult for the live and video streaming services of its worship services. While searching for a modern solution, senior pastor Ryan Palmer says they also wanted the environment to exude more of a warm, family feel to welcome parishioners.

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Elevation Church in Ballantyne, NC got a visual assist from SES.

H.O.W. Interview: Trey Blair of SES Integration

Helping Ministries Optimize their Investments in Technology

Some schoolchildren find their favorite sport at a very young age, and others discover their passion for art or music. For Trey Blair, when he was a student at Concord First Assembly Christian school in Concord, North Carolina, the calling took him where most PLSN readers found themselves: in the dark with the audio, video, lighting and rigging that made things happen onstage.

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Beams of light from the Martin MAC Axioms excite the crowd.

Creating a Mirage in the Heart of The City

Cityfox’s Pop-Up Party Mecca Concept in Brooklyn Draws Crowds

New York has an exciting new music hub. Located in an industrial building in the East Williamsburg section of Brooklyn that once housed both a steel plant and a waste management facility, the Brooklyn Mirage is using the site to create an outdoor, EDM friendly dance club complete with colorful lighting, dazzling video and palm trees imported fresh from Florida.

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Entire lighting and video rigs can be hung for events.

Irmarfer Structures

Irmarfer established their North American facility in Las Vegas in 2016 and provided a structure used during the MTV VMA Awards in Los Angeles last month.

Irmarfer Structures, created in 1998, is a family-owned company with its global headquarters in Portugal. The company has emerged as a sought-after manufacturer of tents, stages, and flooring systems in Europe, serving the corporate, sporting, fashion, music, film, and special events markets.

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The interactive lasers at Coachella 2017. Photo by Michael Greene

Laser Focus: Going Interactive

Infinity Marketing and Production Design International Team Up for Hewlett-Packard at Coachella and Beyond

Lighting and laser designer Howard Ungerleider was working on a commercial when he got an intriguing call from Kailene Horlitz. Kailene and her company, Los Angeles-based Infinity Marketing, were trying to help Hewlett-Packard promote their new Pavilion line of PCs with HP’s first big foray into a new kind of immersive, interactive experience. The plan was to launch this new experiential marketing concept at Coachella 2017.

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PLSN September 2017 Buyers Guide - Data Distribution and Opto-Splitters

Data Distribution and Opto-Splitters

One of the most important pieces of gear in the dimmer area has always been a dependable opto splitter, which gets DMX info to every fixture spread over your stage, trade floor or installation. Nowadays there are several types to choose from. They range from simple one-universe in and four 5-pin outs to Swiss Army knife-type models that accept RDM, DMX and Art-Net and can split, merge or spit out streams of info. There are even models that can tell you if your cable has a short, is terminated or is simply unplugged.

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