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Annie’s Storybook Sets

Annie photo by Joan Marcus

Annie’s Storybook Sets

David Korins loves Annie, and knew that he had a huge responsibility in designing sets for the first re-imagined version of the famed 1977 musical, whose numerous hit songs (“Tomorrow,” “Maybe,” “It’s A Hard Knock Life”) are embedded in our cultural DNA. The current Broadway incarnation is the third production of the beloved show, and the first not directed by original director/lyricist Martin Charnin. Director James Lapine chose Korins as his scenic designer, and the latter felt quite honored to be a part of a team that wanted to make the show equally engaging for adults as children. Known for creative scenic work on shows like Godspell, Passing Strange and The Pee-wee Herman Show, Korins wanted to help redefine the musical — originally inspired by a Harold Gray comic strip, about little orphan Annie, plucked from an abusive Lower East Side orphanage to spend the Christmas holidays with rich and powerful Daddy Warbucks, who then becomes her benefactor — for a new generation.

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Grey Cup CFL Halftime Show. Photo: Carole Bozzato Timm & Roy Timm

The Grey Cup: North America’s “Other” Big Football Halftime Show

There’s a visual glow — a kind of Electric Aura — around Toronto. It’s the energy of precision planning — a year ahead of time — that goes into a show with seven and a half minutes to set up, 15 minutes of adrenaline-pumping performances, and three frantic minutes on the clock to clear the field. The Canadian Football League celebrated the 100th championship with the SiriusXM Grey Cup Halftime Show Nov. 25. Along with 50,000-plus Toronto Argonauts and Calgary Stampeders fans on site at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, millions in Canada, the U.S. and beyond saw the Grey Cup and halftime show via TV and the Internet — making the event the most-watched Grey Cup and halftime show in CFL history.

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Elton John Million Dollar Piano photo by Steve Jennings

Elton John’s Million Dollar Piano

Perspectives from Patrick Woodroffe, Mark Fisher and Kevin Bye

Elton John’s Million Dollar Piano, a three-year engagement at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, is the artist’s second long-running residency show at the venue. Like the previous residency/tour, Red Piano, a key focal point is Elton’s instrument on stage, in this case a custom-built, million-dollar Yamaha piano that he has named Blossom. The Million Dollar piano has built into it LSI/Saco 3mm high resolution LED screens which feature various visual designs throughout the show. PLSN got the opportunity to discuss the show’s visual elements with LD Patrick Woodroffe, production designer Mark Fisher and lighting director Kevin “Stick” Bye.

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My Morning Jacket tour photo by Bree Kristel Clarke

GLP’s Lasting Impression

“We want to be the leading manufacturer of LED automated fixtures,” states Mark Ravenhill. “We want to maintain that goal and keep moving forward. We want to keep adapting the technology available and keep bringing products to the market that make those who light live events lives better.”

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elektraLite eye Kandy

elektraLite eye Kandy

Over the last year I have seen numerous LED products flood our industry. Each one seems to be a slightly different version of a similar light fixture. Then I took the eye Kandy from elektraLite for a test drive and was immediately impressed by the fact that I was witnessing something revolutionary. Someone had built a normal moving light, but instead of the usual lamp for a light source, the light beam comes from one bright 200 watt white LED.

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Ai Infinity Series

Ai Media Servers

The Ai Media Server family, developed through Avolites Media’s alliance with Immersive Ltd., bridges the gap between media server and video pre-viz tool in a new and powerful way. Unlike other DMX-based media servers, Ai can operate as a stand-alone server that performs a wide range of media-related tasks, including content generation, playback of multiple layers of HD content, 3D mapping and pre-visualization of the entire performance area, all on the same machine.

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» The images depict the author using MadMapper and its companion app, Mad KinnectMasker. Here, Vickie Claiborne is using a Kinnect camera with her computer, applying a graphics loop to the mask created by the KinnectMasker app.

Masking with an IR Camera

The producer of an event I am designing sent me a link to a YouTube video in which projected images had been “mapped” onto a human figure, and wanted to know how difficult it would be to achieve that effect in the show we’re creating. This request sparked a journey, and it’s evident that I still have a long way to go. But I have scratched the surface, and here are a few options that I’ve experimented with and what I’ve learned so far about a possible solution using heat-seeking IR cameras.

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The Hotel AV Sector: Poised for Growth?

On the face of it, the hotel/hospitality sector doesn’t seem like the most glamorous part of the AV business to be in. How many conferences, trade shows and product presentations have we all sat through during which our attention wandered to the fellow slouched behind the audio or lighting consoles as talking heads droned up on stage, and thought to ourselves, “It’s gotta be worse for him.” Well, that guy or girl might also be looking at a newly stirring sector for AV, one that will be facing some business challenges as the recession continues to recede but that will also be a fertile field for opportunity in the near term.

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Push Button, Get Banana

For years, scientists have used buttons to train animals and determine behaviors. The simple act of pressing a button to achieve a certain response can easily be taught to many different species. Button pressing is unassuming process that can be used in various applications to produce different results. At this very moment I am pressing combinations of 56 buttons to write this article.

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Illustration by Andy Au

Holiday Hang-Ups

Last month I once again dealt with some of my favorite, yet most feared, lighting fixtures. The dreaded Christmas lights. Sure, they look great once the darkness comes and they cast a glow over my snow-filled front yard. The view is fab when the wrapping paper clad presents are illuminated solely by the blinkety-blink emitted from the corner tree. But for some reason, getting there can be a comedy of errors.

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