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Cosmic Truss

The Cosmic Truss team at LDI 2016. From left, Paul Saghbazarian, Jack Lee, David Park and Marco Stuve.

Cosmic Truss

You probably have heard recently about Cosmic Truss’ award-winning booth design at this year’s LDI where they displayed a giant skull — which looked like it came straight out of hell — made entirely from truss. While many assumed that the huge skull was all custom, in fact it was almost completely stock pieces with minor custom bits. PLSN caught up with Cosmic Truss’ brand director, David Park and sales manager, Paul Saghbazarian to talk about Cosmic Truss, what’s new, and what they’ve been up to lately beyond building awesome truss skulls.

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Accurate Staging provided the set. Photo by Steve Jennings

Chance the Rapper

[caption id="attachment_273481" align="alignnone" width="800"]Accurate Staging provided the set. Photo by Steve Jennings[/caption]

Michael Apostolos on the Design for the Artist’s 2016 “Magnificent Coloring World Tour”

Starting off as a freshman in high school interning at Performance Lighting out of Chicago, Michael Apostolos first started working in the shop prepping gear. Moving forward, he then got into designing and programming for his high school theater and upon graduation, pursued a career as a production and lighting designer.

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Claypaky Lights up the Banks of the Danube

50th Anniversary Celebration of Linz Klangwolke in Austria Lit with Claypaky Fixtures

LINZ, Austria – Lighting designer Björn Hermann lit up the Austrian sky with more than 100 Claypaky luminaires for the recent Linz Klangwolke, or ‘Cloud of Sound’, held along the Danube. The open-air multimedia event, a mix of music, performance and visual art, has been a highlight of the city’s annual calendar since 1979. The Klangwolke presents a different theme each year, and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Johannes Kepler University Linz, the 2016 edition was presented under the ‘River of Knowledge’ banner.

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Ayrton MagicBurst

Ayrton MagicBurst

Ayrton might be likened to the Apple of the LED lighting fixture world, creating fixtures we didn’t know that we wanted until we saw them. The utility of a moving-head strobe may not be immediately clear, and at first blush the idea of a pixel-mappable moving head strobe seems — perhaps — a little over the top. But play with the MagicBurst™ for an afternoon, or even a few minutes, and that opinion might change. While the concept is simple enough on the surface, there’s greater depth here than might be immediately apparent.

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The Multi-Facets of Prismatic Programming

Automated lighting fixtures are filled with many different effects and mechanical abilities. In addition to gobos, colored glass, shutters and irises, many fixtures provide a prism effect. While similar to a gobo, inserting a prism into the optics of an automated light can have many different results. An automated lighting programmer should understand the reactions and controls when using prisms.

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Brian Setzer Orchestra's Christmas Rocks, photo by Debi Moen

Making Spirits Bright: Holiday Tours

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? They’re alerting us to other long-running holiday shows — beyond TSO. Designer Watch checked in on Brian Setzer, Oak Ridge Boys, Mannheim Steamroller, Amy Grant & Michael W. Smith, Ian Anderson, and Johnny Mathis tours.

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Illustration by Andy Au

Dear Festival Lighting Designer

I am well aware that you are more than capable of designing, operating, teching, programming and facilitating every single show that comes through your fine festival grounds. But today, you are my festival lighting designer. I only need a few things from you and I need them done to the best of your ability. I need a patch, a plot and a functional rig. A smile would be nice, but not necessary. I don’t need your résumé nor do I need your sob story. After checking in with a handful of my favorite programmers and directors, I have come up with a comprehensive list of tips on how to help me help you to make our time together as de-light-ful as possible.

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Production setup for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Concert

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Concert Uses ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K

FREMONT, CA – American indie folk band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes performed as part of the recent “Sound in Focus” event in LA. Blackmagic Design announced that Santa Monica production company Subtractive Inc. used ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K, ATEM 1 M/E Broadcast Panel and HyperDeck Studio 12G broadcast recorders as part of a live streaming and IMAG setup for a recent Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros concert at Century Park in Los Angeles.

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The setup for the event included Analog Way's Ascender 48 - 4K - PL multi-screen processing technology

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Congress in Poland Gets Visual Assist from Analog Way Ascender 48 – 4K – PL

LODZ, Poland – Hewlett Packard Enterprise gathered together its partners and distributors for the HPE Congress Partners Seminar in Łódź, Poland. Polymus Agency, in charge of organizing the event, entrusted the audiovisual design of the venue to PRO4MEDIA, a prominent service provider for AV technology. PRO4MEDIA chose Analog Way solutions  for this project because of the flexibility of the systems.

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Bandit Lights Up Good Morning America CMA Concert

[caption id="attachment_273458" align="alignnone" width="800"]Dierks plays Nashville streets the morning of the CMA Concert[/caption]

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – Dierks Bentley was up at dawn to kick off the morning of the 50th Annual CMA Awards with a live performance on the streets of Nashville with Good Morning America. The televised concert featured a lighting package designed by Mark Carver and provided by Bandit Lites. The crowd was treated to hearing Bentley’s new single “Black,”

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