Zzyzx Inc. of Las Vegas has recently released version 2 of their ESP Vision visualization software program designed for programming lighting cues outside of the venue without using a lighting system. With this program, a lighting designer can make beautiful photo realistic renderings that depict what a show will look like, and convert these drawings to a video presentation of the event.
Read More »Often it can be very useful to adjust the default pan and tilt position of your fixtures. For instance, if we have some moving head… Read More »Building Positions with Moving Head Fixtures
Read More »If a lamp tests good and the plug tests good (you might not know for sure until you open things up) the problem is in… Read More »Light Trouble-Shooting
Read More »If a known good light doesn’t light in a circuit, that proves it’s not the light, so we go the other way; we start troubleshooting… Read More »The Mystery of the Lost Light, part 2
Read More »Last winter, I got a call from a Chicago friend asking if I would be interested in designing the lighting and a set for a theatre tour. The artist is R. Kelly, a popular R&B singer, and he wanted to do something different. Robert (the artist’s real name) was used to playing arenas, but this time he wanted an intimate show in a theatre environment, complete with set changes and different themes for five sets of music.
Read More »“No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.” – Christian Nevell Bovee, author/lawyer
If ever you feel like the deposits in your self-esteem account are outpacing your withdrawals, you might consider letting your significant other loose with your ego credit card. That should take care of any excess balance you might have.
Read More »On Feb. 28, there was an explosion on the steps of the state capitol building in Nashville. It wasn’t terrorism; in fact, it was a politician who pushed the plunger. Rather, it was a wakeup call, a demonstration of the power—and the danger— of pyro, and it came almost three years to the day that nearly 100 patrons died in a pyro-induced fire at The Station nightclub in Warwick, R.I.
Read More »It was a day just like any other Texas day at the Cotton Bowl: hot and humid. A crew from Showlites was making steady progress, and we were well ahead of schedule that day, putting up a fairly decent-sized lighting rig for a Journey show that was about to be unleashed upon unsuspecting Dallas residents that weekend. The rig was a 400-plus lamp system, not including audience lights and the Molefays that were to be used on the P.A. wings to light two enormous scrims on either side of the screens used for Eidophore (large scale) projections.
Read More »As Las Vegas continues to boom, it seems as if there is constantly a new hotel vying for our evenings (and our checkbooks): Cirque du Soleil shows now outnumber the seats at a blackjack table, Celine Dion performs in her own Coliseum, Elton John fills in when she’s weekending in the Hamptons and Franco Dragone produces everything but burlesque shows.
To compete in this field, venues on the strip are going after big-name performers that can pull in viewers from every generation, including one of the most well-known crooners of modern day, Barry Manilow.
Read More »For most event companies, video is a jump that seems too costly to make and the return on investment is questionable. That does not need to be the case with the new technologies being applied to processing equipment and to projectors.
Starting with a small system for corporate A/V or club use, a complete system can be assembled for less than $50,000. The system will include a basic input switcher, the appropriate amps and drivers, cabling, and for simplicity’s sake, one screen and projector.
Read More »What are you going to do when…
Last month, I heard that Selecon, the New Zealand lighting manufacturer, had designed a new conventional lighting fixture that was going to make people interested in a Fresnel. It was hard to get excited. A couple years ago, people crossed a PAR with a Fresneltype lens and that did not thrill me. But then I actually used the new Selecon fixture.
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