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Gathering of the Vibes Festival

Gathering of the Vibes Festival 2014 photo by Mike Thut.

Gathering of the Vibes Festival

It’s been 19 years since Jerry Garcia died, but the Grateful Dead frontman’s “vibes” are alive and well, floating though the crowd of 25,000-plus who gather in his honor every summer for four days of music and camping — with a little ‘60s-style peace and love thrown in. Gathering of the Vibes, a modern-era, well-behaved version of Woodstock, was started in 1996 by Connecticut businessman/Deadhead Ken Hays to fill the void created by Garcia’s untimely passing from a heart attack at 53. GOTV has since become one of the Northeast’s pre-eminent festivals; over the years it has featured not only the remaining members of the Grateful Dead and various tribute bands, but world-class artists from an eclectic mix of genres: Crosby, Stills and Nash; James Brown; Allman Brothers Band; Elvis Costello; Black Crowes; Nas; Bruce Hornsby, to name a few.

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Cory FitzGerald played a key role on the creative team that came up with the looks for Demi Lovato's Neon Lights tour. Photo courtesy of Seven. Design. Works LLC

A Conversation with Designer Cory FitzGerald

It has been a very busy 2014 for lighting designer Cory FitzGerald. Starting off the year working with his Seven Design Works’ partner LeRoy Bennett on the Bruno Mars New Years Eve Show at the Cosmopolitan hotel in Vegas, all the way through to the taping of the Beyoncé/Jay-Z On The Run performances in Paris for HBO. In between, FitzGerald provided designs for Skrillex — both the Mothership Tour and the San Francisco Takeover shows, Demi Lovato’s Neon Lights and current world tour, Beyoncé’s performances at the Grammys and MTV Music Awards shows and many more one-offs and special events.

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Pasquale

In Memoriam: Pasquale “Paky” Quadri, 1947-2014

Clay Paky Founder Leaves a Legacy of Innovation

Pasquale “Paky” Quadri, founder and chairman of Clay Paky SpA, died at his home in Torre de’ Roveri, Italy shortly before midnight on Sept. 6. He was 67. In the years since founding the company in 1976 with fellow musician Claudio Paredi — the company name is formed by their two nicknames — Quadri and his company have amassed close to 80 patents and 50 major industry awards for a raft of fixtures combining design innovation with optical excellence and reliable operation.

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Pyro at Ultimate Music Experience 2014, South Padre Island, TX. Photo by Drew Ressler - Rukes.com

Pyrotecnico FX: The Special Effects Dynasty Continues

Historians believe fireworks first exploded onto the scene in seventh century China and reached widespread use during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). A new dynasty began in 1889 when Constantino Vitale founded his fireworks company in Pietramelara, Italy. In 1920, he moved his firm and family to New Castle, PA, whose official slogan would become “The Fireworks Capital of America.” In its first century, the business that would emerge as Pyrotecnico grew to become one of the country’s largest fireworks companies. It now creates many of the world’s most dazzling displays.

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2014 Parnelli Visionary Award Honoree Howard Ungerleider

2014 Parnelli Visionary Award Honoree Howard Ungerleider

You are the architect of your own future, and you get out of it what you put into it,” Howard Ungerleider says. Ungerleider is, himself, a helluva architect, and he has put his heart, soul, sweat and passion into a remarkable career that continues to inspire and influence not only the work of other lighting designers, but the manufacturers who create lighting tools. For all that and more, he will be honored with the Parnelli Visionary Award at the 14th annual Parnelli Awards ceremony, set for Nov. 22 in Las Vegas.

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2014 Hometown Hero Finalists Announced

The 2014 Hometown Hero Finalists

Companies driven by people doing what they love to do most are what make a “hometown hero.” There’s a lot of passion in this eclectic collection chosen by the readers of PLSN. And while this can be, as one honoree described it, a “dog eat dog” world, there’s a lot of good people doing good work out there. Here are the six best lighting companies in North America for 2014. One of these companies will be honored with a Parnelli Award for Hometown Hero Lighting Company of the Year at the annual awards ceremony, set this year for Nov. 22 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

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This 4K blend, presented at InfoComm 2014, used E2 and two Barco HDQ-4K35 projectors.

The Next Evolution in Presentation Switching

Over the last few years, I’ve written several columns on the subject of 4K, and the message in the consumer marketplace remains unchanged: the big television manufacturers need shiny new toys to sell, and 4K gets the nod. Granted, the pictures are stunning, the resolution is remarkable, the price point is way higher than HD, and 4K content is very scarce.

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ExtraPro Patch Player

ExtraPro Patch Player

What  options do you have when managing the playback of content in multiple locations from a single source? Until recently, the answer would have been to create a matrix of routers, cables, media servers, and controllers to accomplish what should be fairly straightforward. Patch Player, by ExtraPro LLC, is a new content playback application that lets users control content playing in various locations from a single source.  Created by developer/owner Ted Mizrahi, Patch Player promises to simplify control and setup for presentations, tradeshows and other types of multi-show environments via any Android OS device.

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Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 Spot

Chauvet Professional’s Rogue Series

For the past few years, lighting designers have been in search of a light that is an all-around workhorse — able to do almost anything they ask while still being lightweight, compact and LED-based. Rental houses want what the LDs want, too, of course — with the added requirements that the fixtures be easy to maintain, comparable to a 250W discharge fixture and — oh yeah — offered at an affordable price.

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Marsha Stern at the Pines Pavilion back in the late 1980s. Photo by Bob Howard

The Good Ol’ Disco Days

I have been programming automated lighting since the late 1980s and have seen many things change and grow. However, most of today’s programming has its roots in a time even before I started programming. The disco era of the 1970s and 1980s was filled with many different types of fixtures and control. Automated lighting desks did not exist, yet complex lighting sequences had to be produced and recalled. Lighting designer Marsha Stern was lucky enough to have been a pioneer at the time, controlling lighting in some of the New York City’s most iconic discos. I sat down with her to better understand the tools available at the time and their influences on today’s automated lighting concepts.

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ABC’s MDA Show of Strength aired as a two-hour special Aug. 31. Photo by Design Partners

Designing for the MDA Telethon; Gambling on Casino LDs; Quick Cues

Children in wheelchairs not only have special needs, they need special design consideration when they’re part of a show. Getting them in and out of the audience, getting them onto the stage requires ramps, elevators and other accessibility features. While the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has recently swept social media to raise funds for ALS, the MDA Telethon has been raising money for ALS, muscular dystrophy and other neuro-related diseases since 1966, traditionally during Labor Day weekend.

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