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Capturing ‘Holiday Inn’ for Posterity

Lighting levels had to be balanced for the human eye and camera. Photos by Joan Marcus

Capturing ‘Holiday Inn’ for Posterity

The Art of Recording a Live Play on Camera

For theater lovers, nothing beats the experience of witnessing a show in person. But when one does not have the opportunity, watching it onscreen is the next best thing. BroadwayHD has begun capturing more and more shows for posterity and streaming them live from their website. One of the latest musicals to receive renewed digital life is Holiday Inn, the bright, peppy, colorful show inspired by Irving Berlin movie musical that wowed Broadway audiences last holiday season. It was first streamed live from Studio 54 last year.

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PLSN Dec. 2017 Buyers Guide -Strobes

Strobes

The days of xenon bulbs in strobes is just about over. Diversitronics, the one-time leader in the market, has stopped making fixtures, but they still sell bulbs. Solaris Strobe still offers one, and you may still be able to find a Lightning Strike in a Hollywood shop. The GAM Star Strobe (marketed by Rosco) is now a double-ended xenon flicker, but everyone else is now LED. The Martin Atomic got itself an Aura. The Ayrton MagicBurst is a strobe machine unlike any other. GLP may just be the leader these days with lots of functions — and a strobe with a tilt function. And all these babies are bright. Happy shopping, and be glad you’re just looking a photos and not actual units fired up at 100 percent.

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Wiess Energy Hall within the Houston Museum of Natural Science has become a showcase for advanced projection-mapping techniques. RabCup used Green Hippo technologies met the complex projection needs. Photos courtesy Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Bringing Energy City to Life

The most comprehensive energy exhibit in the world, the Wiess Energy Hall, opened Nov. 20 in the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS). More than two years in the making, the highlight of the exhibit is Energy City, a 2,500-square-foot 3D landscape designed and fabricated by Paul Bernhard Exhibit Design and Consulting (PBE), the design company selected to create the
Wiess Energy Hall.

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Ultra-high-res projection-mapping extends from four to eight of the venue’s proscenium arches, and all native 14,000-by-14,000 pixels were mapped for the FOH projection. Photos courtesy Radio City/MSG.

NYC’s Radio City Christmas Show Gets Even More Spectacular

Since it premiered in 1933, the annual Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes has always wowed the New York City crowds taking a break from gawking at the big tree and window-shopping the holiday offerings lining the streets near New York’s Rockefeller Center. But the 2017 show can make a credible claim to being the most spectacular show to date, with an assist from a complete technical overhaul that includes a new 8K LED video wall and 14K digital projection-mapping extending to all eight of Radio City Music Hall’s iconic prosceniumarches.

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Fig. 1A

3D Pixel Mapping on a 2D Screen

As pixel mapping is becoming more and more commonplace in the lighting world, and LEDs are being incorporated into 3D configurations to create scenic objects like chandeliers and cubes, the challenge of programming them increases. Instead of looking at the pixels in a 2D flat “plan” view, now we’re beginning to think about looking at pixels from all sides and angles.

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Blackmagic Design ATEM Television Studio Pro HD Switcher

Blackmagic Design ATEM Television Studio Pro HD Switcher

Video switchers are not sexy. At least the smaller frames. Let’s face it, in terms of sheer eye candy, small event video switchers take a back seat to their audio and lighting cousins.

It’s a general rule that the larger the console, the more bells and whistles and consequently more blinky lights and buttons. The smaller fare is basic because they tend to be more utility than glam. There’s only so much you can fit in a frame anyway.

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Martin MAC Encore Performance

Martin MAC Encore Performance

I recently got a chance to test the Martin MAC Encore Performance fixtures from Harman, which are available in two versions — the WRM, or “warm” version, and CLD, or “cold” version. (As of last month’s LDI, Martin added the MAC Encore Wash, also in warm and cool versions, but here, I’ll just focus on the two versions of the MAC Encore Performance.) After playing with the Performance, I concluded that it is perfect for working with cameras.

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Paging All Playbacks

Paging All Playbacks

Automated lighting consoles have many great programming and playback features that provide many useful functions. One of the more clever functions has to do with expanding playback capabilities. Instead of being limited by the number of physical buttons and faders on a console, most make use of pages (or banks) to increase the playbacks immensely. The page functionality can be used for much more, such as organizing songs or scenes, adjusting playback styles, expanding capabilities and more. It is important for lighting programmers to understand the paging functionality of their console.

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Illustration by Andy Au

The Subtle Art of Self-Promotion

Tooting your own horn in public can be very successful, as long as you toot properly. I have had to toot my own horn to get where I am today. Learning how to walk the line between blasting a trumpet from the rooftop and noodling on a kazoo can be tricky. The world of self-promotion can be a real entanglement for the corporate artist type.

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