Remember when MTV played music? Back when MTV launched in 1981, I was in college and procrastinated away many an hour watching music videos on the channel. Over time, MTV tried a lot of different things and reality TV was the one thing that stuck. Airing music became mostly a thing of the past, until now. In 2016, MTV brought music back in a big way when, for the first time in 20 years, they began producing a live music show called Wonderland.
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I started out as a lighting guy. But I saw the writing on the wall early on, and with the aid of my mind’s eye, I drifted into a video guy. I guess in some sense I’ll always be a lighting guy — can’t have video without lighting, right?
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Although Datapath has been around for a while, I only recently became aware of their product line. Having spec’d a rather large video wall a scant six months ago, Datapath frequently rose to the top of my Internet search as an external graphics box manufacturer, and they make some killer boxes. The company is mainly known for large, scalable wall controller servers and graphics capture cards, but they also offer a series of small-but-powerful multi-display units that are worth checking out.
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UNIVERSITY PARK, PA — 4Wall provided lighting for a dance marathon event at Penn State University that raised more than $10 million for organizations helping children with cancer and their families. The event, dubbed THON, ran for 46 hours within Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center. 4Wall DC provided the rental package for the event made possible by donations from Red Brick Productions, ETC, the Bryce Jordan Center, and various other University entities.
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We’re chatting while peering into a spanking new Vari-Lite VL6000 at the Heroic Productions facility in Minneapolis, where production designer Paul Guthrie, (nicknamed Arlo) resides. He’s an Aussie who fell in love with an American girl and settled here back in the 1990’s. He’s pretty much covered every aspect of lighting in his career, including a huge sold out show at First Avenue’s main room last week with Poliça, a local band. His light rig consisted of six Chroma-Q Color Force 48 strip lights and six Martin MAC Auras.
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Beam fixtures have certainly become commonplace in the world, but when one thinks of these we normally think of the small fixtures with a tiny aperture that project pencil-thin beams. That was then and quite frankly, this is now. The VL6000 Beam takes everyone’s preconceived notion of what a beam fixture should be able to do and has doubled down on it. This unique fixture is like no other, changes color like no other, emits lumens equivalent to a long throw spotlight and is the fastest large-yoke fixture I have ever seen. And it’s virtually silent.
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The image of a katana is one of refined elegance, a gracefully curved blade so sharp as to cut the very air before it. Like its namesake, the Katana from DTS Lighting aims to provide a sharp and dramatic blade of light cutting through the darkness, but it’s more than just a linear batten — the Katana comes with a few tricks to keep things interesting. DTS is an Italian company that has been in the lighting business since the 1980s, and this is their first motorized linear batten light. The form factor here is typical of some other motorized battens — a linear “head” with the LED dies and optics, and a base with the power supply, menu system and electronics.
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EAST AMERICAN FORK, UT — Cornerstone AV purchased FLEXCurtain HD 6.35mm LED video panels from Nashville-based PixelFLEX to meet the needs of current and future clients. Cornerstone’s Chad Fraughton detailed how the AV company was able to use it for a rebranding event involving Vivint Corporation and the NBA arena in Salt Lake City where a small room was wrapped with the product to create an immersive visual environment. Other events making use of the product include the one pictured here, for Pluralsight, an online education company.
Read More »Automated lighting programmers have a multitude of functions available to them to modify lighting looks. From gobos to color, to movements, the options are nearly limitless. One of the underused concepts is shaking of various elements. This can add drama, frenetic energy, or even psychedelic displacement to an already existing lighting look or effect. There are several different types of shakes that programmers can encounter, and each provides a unique effect. Some are built into the fixtures while others must be created from the console. It is important for automated lighting programmers to understand the abilities and shake things up a bit when appropriate.
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Kings of Leon Production designer Paul Normandale unveiled a new design for the Kings of Leon’s “Walls” 2017 tour, with Hunter Firth as the operator. U.K. audiences got their first peek at the show in February, with the U.S. arena leg starting March 11 in Broomfield, CO. Normandale graciously shared his design in a rendering of the Kings of Leon’s U.S. arena tour, as press is not yet being approved.
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How can a pup without a nickname run with the big dogs?
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ST. LOUIS, MO — The Resident Shows Division of Cirque du Soleil received the Institute’s highest honor, the USITT Award, at USITT 2017. The award recognizes a lifetime contribution to the performing arts and entertainment communities. It was presented at the 2017 Annual Conference & Stage Expo on March 8 in St. Louis, MO. Jerry Nadal, senior VP of Cirque’s resident show division, was credited for his support of USITT training, education, and mentoring initiatives. He is pictured here.
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