There was a time when the reputation of a production company was more important than its profits. Those were the days when a FedEx shipment could fix just about anything and damn the cost. If it meant that the show would go on then the company would survive another day, and the deposit in the karma bank just might yield enough dividends to pay back the loss of revenue. If not, then another hopefully more profitable project would be coming along soon.
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By the time the show floor for InfoComm ’09 opened at 9 a.m. on June 17, dozens of seminars and workshops had already taken place and over eight hundred exhibitors had spent countless hours setting up in the Orlando Convention Center, including roughly 50 lighting companies. The show, which started as an audiovisual show (why does the term “audiovisual” conjure images of overhead projectors and 16mm film in grade school?), has been growing the lighting side as evidenced by the increasing number of lighting exhibitors and lighting-related seminars.
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Bill Sapsis has been at the forefront of rigging for the past 28 years. His company, Sapsis Rigging, is one of the leading rigging companies in our industry, and he’s spent countless hours helping develop programs that make rigging safer and easier.
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Elation has stepped up their product line considerably in the last year, and the introduction of their latest hard edge light is no exception. They have become the first company to build a 1,200-watt fixture with a body the size of everybody else’s 700-watt models. And the light produced from the double-ended MSR 1,200-watt lamp is pure white with a perfectly flat field.
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ChamSys, Arkaos and Capture, three of the fastest growing software developers in the lighting and media server markets today, have developed an open network protocol called CITP/MSEX. Companies like Martin, ETC and Green Hippo are beginning to join the parade by implementing the protocol into some of their latest products including Maxedia, Congo and Hippotizer.
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When you look at a hybrid automobile and a conventional car side by side, you wouldn’t necessarily notice any difference until you looked under the hood. That’s kind of how Sustainable Waves, a turnkey staging/lighting/sound systems provider in Austin, Texas, likes to think of itself when it delivers portable music and events stages complete with wash lighting and audio. Except when you look under their hood, you’ll see solar panels, not an internal combustion engine.
Read More »In the mid-1990s, automated lighting consoles started to incorporate effects engines. With the single press of a button, a ballyhoo or color cycle could be created, eliminating the need to spend a long time building positions and steps of a chase.
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My friend Kenny Mednick is also a lighting designer who illuminates musicians on their tours. While I was speaking to him this year I mentioned that I had been working with some less-than-pleasant people in the last year, namely musicians who were, for lack of a better word, mean, disgruntled people.
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The new Rack-Split RDM RJ45 from Artistic Licence is a one-to-nine-universe DMX512 splitter with RJ45 Ethercon connectors rather than XLR connectors.
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Drape Kings’ original plastic drape hamper for shipping and storage are now available with a roto-molded plastic lid in place of the original plywood.
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Global Truss’ new F31 Single Tube Truss is made of a single 2-inch beam and can be used to form a frame for signs, banners, curtains and LED panels.
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Lycian Stage Lighting’s newest followspot, the Model 1233 Mini Arc, operates on 110V and includes a dichroic glass reflector.
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