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Event Safety Alliance Moves Into Next Phase

ESA president Jim Digby

Event Safety Alliance Moves Into Next Phase

In what began as a conversation involving concerned live event professionals the month after the Indiana State Fair stage collapse in August 2011, the Event Safety Alliance (ESA) is expanding its influence over event safety in North America. As it celebrates its unofficial third year this month (it incorporated in February of 2012), the ESA has made solid progress in their quest to align the industry with best practices in live event safety guidelines. A four-day training session, a new strategic partnership, a new headquarters, and The Event Safety Guide are some of their recent accomplishments.

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3D projection mapping precisely matches projections with multi-faceted surfaces. Credit: Kelly McKeon.

Masking vs. Mapping

As projection mapping continues to grow in popularity for outdoor events as well as indoor applications like retail displays, trade show booths, stage shows, etc., an important discussion has begun to take shape among professional projectionists and content creators: when clients ask for video projection, do they want true 3D mapping projection, or are they merely visualizing 2D projection with masking? It’s important to know the difference and the workload associated with delivering each of these so that you can meet (and often exceed) their expectations.

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The Design Oasis

The Design Oasis

Luccas Oliveira and Abbas Ritscher, co-founders of The Design Oasis in Davie, FL, both have a background in lighting design. As such, they became aware of a distinct market need – for 24/7 rental service and support. They embraced that “client-centric” vision from the start.

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OneRepublic Tours with Elation EVLED 20 LED Panels

OneRepublic Tours with Elation EVLED 20 LED Panels

MORRISON, CO – Elation Professional’s EVLED 20 LED panels played a key role on OneRepublic’s Native tour, forming a focal point of the show’s unique diamond-shaped set look. The EVLED panels are located upstage behind the band and remain static during the show. LD Chris Lisle explains: “The overall look of the show is comprised of diamonds, and the center focus is three diamond-shaped video panels made up of Elation EVLED 20s that slightly overlap each other. There are a few tiles of each screen strategically removed to create a unique look.”

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Clay Paky A.leda B-Eye K20

Clay Paky A.leda B-Eye K20

A wasp, hornet, yellow jacket, or honeybee? Which of these have anything to do with a moving light? All the buzz is because Clay Paky, Italian based lighting manufacturer and maker of the popular Sharpy, has taken the beautiful naturally occurring honeycomb pattern and applied it as a front lens to its latest wash light, the A.leda B-Eye K20.

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Ayrton MagicBlade R fixture distributed by Morpheus Lights

Ayrton MagicBlade R

I have to start out by saying what a pleasure it is to toy around with a new original light fixture. One that does not copy or emulate any other lighting fixture on the market, but is unique. French lighting manufacturer Ayrton has once again raised the bar with the release of their MagicBlade. I am sitting in the Morpheus Lights showroom in Las Vegas as I run this beauty through its paces. Morpheus Lights distributes Ayrton in America. 

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The Magical Layout

One of the newest automated lighting features that is getting talked about often is the Layout View, or Magic Sheet. While this feature has been around on consoles for many years, only recently has it really taken off. The great adoption of multi-touch applications on tablets, phones, and computers has allowed manufacturers and programmers to expand the abilities of this wonderful tool and really make the best use of it. Now lighting programmers are jumping all over it and finding it an extremely useful instrument in their arsenal of programming utilities.

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Ryan Adams on the Tonight Show. Photo by Douglas Gorenstein/NBC

Designing Ryan Adams; Creative Emmys Awarded; Rolden Receives Raves; More

Ryan Adams has returned to the road to support his new self-titled album. LD Brett Lorins is working with the artist, starting with a few one-off shows with his band, The Shining. The fall tour kicks off Sept. 8 in Washington, DC, taking in U.K. and Canadian dates along with U.S. tour stops until Nov. 19. Among Adams’ one-offs was a performance Aug. 13 on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

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Nexus 4x4 Panels Light Sunset Music Festival in Australia

Sunset Music Festival in Australia Uses Nexus 4×4 Panels

ARMIDALE, Australia – For Sunset Music Festival, an EDM music festival held at the Armidale Showgrounds here, Sydney-based Showtime Promotions and Productions provided 12 Nexus 4×4 panels from Chauvet Professional. “We hung the panels on tiered trussing, which worked very well with the curved roof structure of Showtime’s stage to create an intense focus of light.” said Showtime’s Adriano Mercurio.

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Illustration by Andy Au

Accent Lights

The majority of my work is lighting live entertainment. In the process of lighting design for these gigs, I have always thought that the main tools I needed were a bunch of wash lights and a few hard-edged profiles to make some pretty scenes. This would run true whether I was using strictly conventional or moving light rigs. But nowadays the daily advancements made in technology have brought us what I like to call “Accent Lights.”

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