Years ago, I was afraid of controlling my lights on a PC Based lighting controller. Recently, like in the past six months, I have come to fall in love with them. Looking back on why I was so nervous about using them was the fact that almost everything had to be done with a mouse, or by remembering those awkward keyboard shortcuts. There is something about having a console’s control surface in front of you.
Read More »Automated lighting fixtures are very complex robotic devices filled with mechanical and electrical features commanded by comprehensive software. The manufacturers of these fixtures fill them with many useful features, some of which are lesser known or understood. A good automated lighting programmer will take the time to learn the capabilities of his/her luminaires by reading the user manuals and DMX protocols/maps. Furthermore, some features are simple menu settings or DMX values that may not be included in the console’s fixture library. The following obscure fixture features can be found in many common lighting fixtures and are useful tools for creating original and dynamic lighting programming.
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Holiday tours are spreading multimedia magic across the country. Production designer Bryan Hartley has reimagined a new look for the annual Trans-Siberian Orchestra tour, which again runs an identical East and West Coast leg Nov. 13-Jan 4, 2015. Hartley could hardly contain his excitement, telling PLSN, “My new design and concept for this year show and story is probably the best thing I’ve done. It really is a masterpiece! It is my favorite design.”
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Ever since grade school, I’ve been one of those people who preferred to ride in the back of the bus. Even when I was on tour, I always seemed to get my sanctuary hanging in the back of the bus, working or reading. Of course spending hours on the road, solving the problems of the world over a couple of beers with the rest of the road crew often required time in the back lounge. Likewise, I spent the last eight years feeling quite at home occupying the back page of PLSN. You had to look all the way in the rear to find me.
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LAS VEGAS – It was Vegas, after all, so the bet was on. “We were all voting when Benny [Collins] would start crying, and I said he wouldn’t make it through the introduction, and I won,” laughs production professional and friend Steve Thomas. Thomas, with Michael Ahern, presented the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award to Collins, the live event industry’s highest honor. Collins took the stage choked up and shed some tears in giving his appreciation to all he’s worked with and made friends with over the years. It was a fitting end to an evening filled with emotions, laughs and tears.
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HADERSLEV, Denmark – Elation Professional’s new SixPar Series of indoor and outdoor PAR color changers is providing dynamic color wash for skateboarders and other street sport enthusiasts at StreetDome, a new skate park. Elation partner Unico Gruppen provided Elation SixPar 300 Par color changers for the 1,500 sq. meter StreetDome Igloo.
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GUANGZHOU – On Dec. 2, a group of 25 senior officials from Pakistan visited PR Lighting’s headquarters in Guangzhou, along with representatives of the Chinese National Commercial Dept. PR Lighting’s international sales team and Dave Liang, the president of PR Lighting, were on hand to welcome the visitors as part of their tour of the city.
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FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Zimmerman Advertising, an ad agency with a client list that includes CBS, Office Depot, ADT, Dunkin Donuts, among other national and international brands, applied its bold marketing strategy to its own home office by creating an three-story image on the building’s façade, visible from I-95. It features a bright red reproduction of the Zimmerman “Z,” with a single Iluminarc Ilumipanel 180 IP LED fixture adding to the visibility of the giant letter. Sound and Lighting Solutions installed the fixture.
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PR Lighting has extended its XLED series with the release of the XLED 3007. Containing seven LEDs (4 in 1 RGBW), each rated at 20W, this is a larger version of the XLED 2007 and features a 6:1 zoom — one of many similar functions it shares with the company’s successful XLED 3019. And crucially, each LED is individually controllable.
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SYDNEY – Indie dance trio RÜFÜS recently embarked on their latest Australian tour, with lighting designers Matthew James Smith and Lynden Gare of Colourblind incorporating some Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20s into their production for one of the first times in Australia, impressing audiences with the fixtures’ never-seen-before effects.
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SPOKANE, WA — LD Seth Jackson recently used 14 of Robe’s CycFX 8 fixtures on the upstage truss for Alice Cooper’s Raise The Dead ’tour, which also included a number of dates as special guests on Mötley Crüe’s All Bad Things Must Come To An End farewell tour. The CycFX 8 units traveled in Tyler Truss sections and were used for scenarios where space was too tight onstage for any ground-rows to up-light the backdrop … as well as to provide a unique reveal ensuring Cooper’s show had its own distinctive look and feel. The CycFX 8s were supplied by Bandit Lites.
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CLEVELAND, OH – Vincent Lighting Systems (VLS) announced the launch of a new web store at https://shop.vls.com. The redesigned shopping platform offers expanded descriptions, more powerful search results and lower prices on its most popular items.
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