Skip to content

Arup Integrates Artec Consultants into its Global Practice

Arup Integrates Artec Consultants into its Global Practice

NEW YORK – Arup and Artec announced the integration of their Acoustics, Audio Visual, and Theatre Consulting practices. A spokesman noted that, prior to the Feb. 2013 merger, the two companies operated separately, with Arup founded in 1946 and Artec founded in 1971. Instead of one company buying another, the merger combines the two practices, which now operate as Arup. The move also brings 13 acoustics, audio visual and theatre consultants under the Arup umbrella.

Read More »
LD Paul Normandale lit fun.'s 2013 tour.

Paul Normandale, LD for fun.

UPCOMING TOUR DATES: Australia in March, UK/Europe in April, returns to North America in July for summer amphitheater tour through September.

THE DESIGN: “As per the band’s name, it’s designed to be fun. There’s a 32-by-8-foot video wall behind the band with a 40-by-8-foot (W x H) Plexiglas two-way mirror in front of that. Five media servers show content through the Plexiglas from behind. There are four robotic and six static cameras that can then feed the live crowd shots back through the mirror, thus reflecting the live crowd. At other times in the show, the lights are pointed directly at the mirror, which makes them reflect back and appears to double the quantity of fixtures in the rig.”

Read More »
Watch Justin's video on the March issue of PLSN at plsn.me/201303ednote.

The ESA’s Event Safety Guide and YOU

Are you tired of hearing about safety yet? I hope not. It has always been important, but it lurched front and center for our industry during the stormy 2011 summer touring season, and it won’t go away any time soon. Being safe ensures that you’ll make it to the next gig. Sure, you may overlook some minimal safety concern and still be fine. Honestly, who hasn’t forgotten a safety cable now and then? It’s a slight oversight, and may not be the end of the world. That is, until something else fails, and there is a 20-plus-pound dead weight traveling 120 mph towards the deck. Are you wearing a hard hat?

Read More »
Compulite Vector IControl App

Compulite Vector iControl App

Compulite Systems has released their new, improved Vector iControl App which remotely controls and edits basic functions for all Vector lighting consoles. The App, for iPhone, iPad, iPod and Android devices, has been completely redesigned with a full GUI makeover.

Read More »
Scarlett Johansson as Maggie in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; photo by Joan Marcus

The Flow and Motion of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

The latest Broadway incarnation of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has generated a big buzz, thanks to star Scarlett Johansson as Maggie, and the well-rounded cast includes Ben Walker (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) as Brick, veteran Irish actor Ciarán Hinds as Big Daddy and Broadway veteran Debra Monk as Big Mama. Williams’ tale focuses on a wealthy plantation family whose patriarch (Hinds) may be dying of cancer. He has two sons as potential heirs to his cotton business — the self-serving Gooper and his wife and brood of five bratty children, and the alcoholic Brick (Walker) and his distraught, rejected wife Maggie (Johansson) who are childless. Gooper is strongly vying for the estate, but Big Daddy favors the troubled Brick, who spurns his wife physically and mourns the death of his close friend Skipper. On the evening of Big Daddy’s birthday, a firestorm of emotions is swelling and ready to burst in the household.

Read More »
Beyonce photo courtesy of Sennheiser

Super Bowl XLVII: The Technology and People Behind Beyonce’s Halftime Show

When the clock ticked down to 00:00 at the end of the first half of Super Bowl XLVII, more than 700 people began a well-choreographed and meticulously rehearsed process to get the Pepsi Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show onto the field. In under eight-minutes, the field was transformed into a fully realized concert spectacular. Beyoncé, along with a reunion of Destiny’s Child, entertained the 75,000+ football fans in the stadium and over 108 million people watching worldwide. Twelve minutes later, the field was just as quickly cleared and the game resumed. (Okay, for only a short time before an unscheduled break, but that is not our industry’s story to tell.)

Read More »
Star Parivaar

Clay Paky, Jagmag Add Glamour to India’s Awards Shows

INDIA – Clay Paky’s range of fixtures are increasingly being used on India’s major events, supplied by Mumbai-based Jagmag Electric Co.  Jagmag LD/ general manager  Atul Sonpal is known for his work on Bollywood award nights and shows in India, and last year Jagmag and Clay Paky collaborated to light a number of those awards shows.

Read More »
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Wrecking Ball Tour photo by Steve Jennings

Jeff Ravitz, LD for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Jeff Ravitz, longtime LD for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, got a surprise call in late 2011: The Boss would once again be hitting the road with the 2012/2013 Wrecking Ball tour, with a new five-piece horn section attempting to fill the void left by The Big Man, Clarence Clemons, who died June 18, 2012. Ravitz and fellow Intensity Advisors designer Kristie Roldan were in New Jersey most of February for rehearsals. The tour launched in Atlanta after pre-tour gigs at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem and Austin’s South by Southwest Festival.

Read More »