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Israel Houghton and New Breed

Main Stage, Ultra Music Festival 2012

Ultra Music Festival XIV Sets New Record

The sold-out Ultra Fest drew a record crowd of 165,000 over three days to Miami’s Bayfront Park last month. The three stages featured loud beats and visuals from Tiësto, Duran Duran, deadmau5 and David Guetta, among others. AG Light and Sound and stage designer Stephen Lieberman helped serve up the stunning mix of video, lighting and pyro effects with a gear list that included (for the main stage, pictured here) nearly 10,000 square feet of LED video (8,070 37mm, 1,745 15mm) and fixtures from Clay Paky (32 Alpha Spot 1500 HPEs, 70 Sharpys), Vari-Lite (32 VL3500 Wash fixtures, 24 VL5 Washes), Martin (60 Atomic 3000 strobes, 4 MAC III Performances) and Elation (61 DLED 60 Tri Strips).

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State of the Industry

You know, the April issue of PLSN is a milestone for me. It marks the one-year anniversary of when I took the reins as editor of the magazine. What a different a year makes! Some of you may know I hail from the D.C. area. This means I grew up around the pomp and circumstance of the government. One of the big traditions in D.C. is the President’s annual State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress. I’ll borrow from this long tradition and use this historic anniversary in entertainment technology journalism to look back on the year and cast an eye forward to changes and trends in event technology.

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Hieronymus photo by Nick Ularu

Hieronymus: Puppets, Projections and Perversion

The phantasmagorical paintings of early Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch offered fantastic visions of Heaven and Hell that not only thrived during the repressive Spanish Inquisition but have influenced generations of painters in the subsequent 500 years since his death, not to mention being important forerunners to the 20th century Surrealist movement. Yet while his highly-detailed, thematically rich tapestries — the most famous of which is the powerful triptych The Garden Of Earthly Delights — have beguiled people’s imaginations for centuries, there have not been many films or plays that have delved into the life of this stunning and original artist.

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Avenged Sevenfold photo by Steve Jennings

Avenged Sevenfold

Pyro and Lighting Bring the Death Bat to Life

LD Trevor Ahlstrand, who worked for Ringling Bros. for two years after graduating high school as head electrician on one of their productions, calls that experience “a fantastic first exposure to the touring industry, giving me a huge amount of hands-on experience in a very short amount of time.”

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South Pilly Vikings at the Mummers Parade 2012

Stars for a Day

South Philly Vikings Win “Super Bowl of Parades”

In July 2010, the hit TV show, America’s Got Talent hosted the entertainment troupe, The South Philly Vikings, who donned four-eyed E.T., pale-skinned predator, and mutant cyber-maniac costumes to perform their choreographed dance sequence, “Alien Encounter.”

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Perry Como Show

Bill Klages

A Life of Lighting for the Camera

Bill Klages already has seven Primetime Emmy Awards for his work in television lighting design. This year, his long and stunning career has been officially recognized with his 2012 induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

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Wired Pop-Up Store in Times Square

Designing with Green in Mind

On Feb. 27, the Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) held a Green Lighting Workshop at the Loews Theater at New York University. For the uninitiated, the BGA is a New York-based group of working theatrical professionals who are dedicated to reducing the environmental impact of theatrical productions, including front office planning, day-to-day front-of-house operations and pre- and post-production activities. Last year, the BGA held a workshop on greener scenic design and construction. This year, the discussion turned to lighting.

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