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Red Hat Summit General Session

Spiegelworlds Empire photo by Thom Kaine

Spiegelworld’s Empire

While Broadway has become a haven for family-friendly entertainment, some people want to spice things up along the Great White Way. That’s where the production of Spiegelworld’s Empire comes in. The irreverent show is a bawdy mix of circus stunts, cabaret performance and vaudevillian hijinks filled with innuendo, naughty jokes and a touch of skin. The circus acts range from a highly agile acrobatic trio clad in lingerie to twirling, high-speed skaters to an amazing balancing act with bones and a feather. It’s a rollicking good time for adults.

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American Ninja Warrior set photo by Justin Lang

American Ninja Warrior

A TV Lighting Crew Takes On the World’s Toughest Obstacle Course

Japanese TV has long featured contests where everyday people risk public humiliation for a chance at getting on national TV — picture 10 contestants in inflatable bowling pin costumes waddling away from a giant rolling ball. But Sasuke, or Ninja Warrior, a series of TV specials that first hit the airwaves in 1997, is different. These competitions focus more closely on each participant’s Ninja-like qualities: strength and agility.

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Electric Daisy Carnival 2012 - Las Vegas, NV. Photo by Drew Ressler

Electric Daisy Carnival 2012

Insomniac Events’ three-night, dusk-to-dawn Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), drawing more than 300,000 to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway June 8-10, featured seven unique stages, live acts, more than 100 DJs, carnival rides, fire sculptures, large-scale artwork, nightly fireworks and laser displays and 500 costumed performers on stilts, funky bicycles and trampolines.

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U2 360 Tour

CAT Entertainment Services

Before I came to work at CAT ES, I’d hear ‘CAT’ and think big yellow bulldozers,” says senior account manager Mitch Margolin. While CAT ES is owned by Caterpillar Inc., “the CAT equipment we bring to a project is specific for live events, not construction sites.”

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Red Rock Amphitheatre photo by Justin Lang

Red Rock Amphitheatre

Upping the Ante from 9,000 to 10,000 Seats

When you first think Vegas, you probably don’t think about Red Rock. That belongs in Colorado, right? Well, yes. But there’s also the beautiful Red Rock National Conservation Area in the peaks outside of Las Vegas. And the Red Rock Casino Resort just down the road has their own outdoor amphitheatre that competes with the best venues in town, thanks to the stage and seating from Brown United.

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ETC Source Four Lustr+

ETC Source Four LED Fixtures

As the LED craze took over the entertainment industry, one of the most frequently-asked questions was, “When will ETC’s Source Four go LED?” At ETC’s CUE, a conference for end-users held in the company’s hometown, Middleton, WI, in July, 2011, the answer came as CEO Fred Foster took the stage and started talking about color. Lo and behold, what started out looking like the beam of a Source Four fixture began to change color.

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Histograms - Video World

A Word about Histograms

Well, there it is again — that little mountain range display on my point-and-shoot camera’s LCD screen.  What’s it doing there?  How do I get rid of it?  What’s it for, anyway? One would imagine that you’ve asked the same set of questions from time to time, especially when you’re fiddling around with your camera’s little multi-function circular thingy (that’s the actual official name, I think).  It’s certainly happened to me — it usually appears when I try to skip through a series of pictures, and suddenly the mountain range shows up as an overlay.

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Avicii tour photo by Drew Ressler

Avicii LE7ELS Tour

The head-spinning visuals for DJ Avicii’s LE7ELS tour start with a monumental set element — a giant head — flanked by large, organically-contoured “leaf-like” projection surfaces, all in front of a giant LED video wall.  Add in some nice beam and wash effects from the lighting rig, and you give one man with four mixing decks a way to deliver a two-hour dance experience for thousands of fans that’s altogether trippy, creative, energetic and bold.

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Yes, Again. Dammit.

There are two things to note about the recent fatal stage collapse in Toronto in mid June this year: 1) Radiohead sold out Downsview Park’s capacity of 40,000, meaning that those who were heading to the event constituted roughly 0.1 percent of all tickets sold annually in North America, none of those ticketholders were even scratched and most of the other 99.9 percent of concert attendees each year need little more than an aspirin as result of a show they go to; and 2) all of that is completely meaningless. A string of fatal staging incidents, including the Indianapolis State Fair stage collapse last August that killed seven, the Pukkelpop Festival storm in which five died in Belgium that same month, and the Big Valley Jamboree in August 2009, where one person died when wind knocked down the main stage, is about to put the live staging industry under scrutiny like never before.

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How to Meet Hot Fixtures

Welcome to the newest service in the lighting industry: meet-hot-fixtures.com.  It is very important for automated lighting programmers to get to know and fully understand the lighting fixtures they will work with.  Our on-line guide (reprinted here) will assist you in your daily interactions with new fixtures.  Often, programmers can be at a loss as to how to fully function with new fixtures, and it is essential that you learn the traits that will assist you with your programming.  We have broken down the relationship process into several easy steps.

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Boston, lit by Gregg Maltby

Boston LD Looks Back; Olympics A-Team; Farm Aid Update; Megadeth Lives On; Quick Cues and More…

PLSN Designer Watch by Debi Moen –
Boston is bringing back memories in concert this summer on their U.S./Canada tour with “More Than a Feeling,” “Peace of Mind,” “Long Time,” “Amanda” and other classic. Though one song advises “Don’t Look Back,” LD Gregg Maltby can’t help but do so. He’s been with the band since 1995, and this is his sixth tour with them.

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