Parnelli Awards Gala Honors 2008 Winners

LAS VEGAS — Those nominated by PLSN readers to be the best and brightest in the live entertainment industry assembled Oct. 24 for the 2008 Parnelli Awards gala at the Rio Hotel & Casino. Although all deserved special recognition for their contribution to the industry, a few were given the additional distinction of having won the industry’s highest honor: a Parnelli Award. To receive it, they ascending the stage shared by luminaries including Dennis Sheehan, winner of the 2008 Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award, Michael Tait, winner of the inaugural Parnelli Visionary Award, shown here; and Alice Cooper, who served as the event’s Master of Ceremonies and was also Honorary Chairperson for the Parnelli Celebrity Classic golf tournament held Oct. 23.

LOS ANGELES — All of the lighting, video and audio playback for the road show, Randy Jackson Presents America’s Best Dance Crew Live is being controlled by co-designer/programmer/operator Mark Jacobson on a full-size grandMA console from MA Lighting, and the video and audio, on a Green Hippo Hippotizer, “needed to be sync’d without timecode,” Jacobson said — with little room for error. “All of the video for the dance routines was edited along to the music, and some of the songs have intros that involve speaking on camera, so it has to be in sync.”

LAS VEGAS — The fire alarm system went off with strobes flashing as lasers and spotlights pierced the smoky air in the long hall within the Las Vegas Convention Center. But attendees at the LDI show kept greeting one another with hearty handshakes and hugs, kept watched demos of new products and went right on learning about the newest software upgrade while others simply strolled along the mostly-black and occasionally confetti-strewn carpet, absorbing the visual spectacle offered by more than 400 exhibitors. Here are a few of the new developments that kept attendees from racing toward the exits.

CARLSTADT, NJ — City Theatrical announced its first eight SHoW DMX technology partners, each of whom have agreed to use SHoW DMX technology inside their products, which include wireless dimmers, wireless distributed dimming, wireless DMX transmitters and receivers, wireless lighting controllers and wireless remote circuit breaker panels.

NEW YORK — Fashion Week once again brought a variety of lighting designers and show producers to venerable New York landmarks, but one of Scharff Weisberg’s most impressive projects this year was on a vacant lot on the corner of 30th Street and Tenth Avenue: a temporary, three-story white building, used for a multi-million dollar bash thrown to mark Calvin Klein’s 40 years in business, which also served as a benefit for New York’s Highline urban redevelopment project.

GLENDALE, AZ — Regarding Tina Turner’s 2008 North American tour, LD Baz Halpin noted that the show is “at times a full-on rock concert to rival AC/DC, and at other times a heavy production show similar to that of any major pop performer.” LEDs, including Coemar Infinity Wash XL lights, are helping the age-defying vocalist glisten and glow.

SACRAMENTO, CA — When the Theatre Arts department at American River College began making plans for its new performance space, an up-to-date rigging system was one of the department’s top priorities.  So was student safety and speedy changeovers.  The two-year community college, which serves 30,000 students, chose to update its rigging with the PowerAssist system from J.R. Clancy.