Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome to PLSN. It is an honor to take the helm of one of the industry's most respected magazines and news sites. As the new editor, I want to introduce myself and tell you a little about what we have in store for you.
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David Flad of Q1 Designs recently teamed with 4Wall Los Angeles to light the interior of downtown LA's Belasco Theatre. The lighting design and implementation was one of the final stages of the three-year renovation of the 80-year-old venue. Set in a central location not far from Staples Center, the Belasco was renovated so that it could host variety of entertainment events. The challenge for Flad and his team was in making sure the lighting was versatile enough to support a variety of needs.
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On one night in February, at the L.A. Staples Center, what happened on the court was more than mere basketball. And here's a clue: If the word "Star" is in the event title – as in NBA All-Star 2011 – the stakes are going to be high. For the 60th time the celebration has been staged, the producers turned to All Access Staging and Productions for an assist.
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"IATSE Local One is the oldest entertainment union in the U.S.," declares Robert Score, the organization's recording-corresponding secretary. Founded in 1886, members that year held a torchlight procession down Broadway to Union Square with 25,000 others demanding an eight-hour day and the end of the child labor. Meanwhile, the best-paid stage employees of that era worked for 50 cents a day, and men employed typically put in up to 100 hours per week.
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Shea Stadium is so deeply woven into the fabric of New York City's social history that even tearing it down didn't make it go away. New York's equal part loving/maddening relationship with the Mets baseball team is augmented by its profound rock ‘n' roll history. It is, after all, where the Beatles played in 1965.
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While most Broadway musicals seek to razzle-dazzle us with big numbers, flashy lights and glitzy sets, many dramas seek to bring us down to reality and delve into the lives of ordinary people with less fanfare. The funny thing is that often in order to immerse us more in the real, the craftsmen at work on straight plays need to incorporate much of the technology that is used on more over-the-top shows. In the case of Good People, technology and realism struck a solid balance.
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Clifton Taylor Provides a Multi-Purpose Lighting Rig for LDs at New York's Fall for Dance Festival
PLSN: In your opinion, what is the basic difference between a lighting designer and a lighting director? You have both of these titles.
Clifton Taylor: The lighting designer is the person who conceives of the lighting, works with the choreographer and comes up with the conceptual basis for the lighting choices. The lighting director is the person who works for the company, and it is her job to recreate the lighting wherever the company performs.
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LumenRadio recently announced availability in the U.S. of their latest wireless DMX/RDM/Ethernet device, the CRMX Nova FX (Flex) RDM. The CRMX, or Cognitive Radio Multiplexer technology, is an automated and adaptive wireless technology that was designed and developed specifically for the lighting industry. It adapts to its surroundings to maximize performance and range while minimizing interference with other systems.
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The concept of the pop-up store – the temporary outlet that creates as much buzz as sales – has quickly become rooted in American retail strategy. Wybron CEO Keny Whitright has taken that one step further with his drive-by shop: Wybron's Mobile Light Lab, a 45-foot trailer that's high-tech on the inside and highly graphic on the outside. Tugged by a powerful Kenworth semi truck, the MLL made its debut in early February at Wybron's Colorado Springs headquarters and manufacturing center and marks a new chapter for the company, using this second iteration of taking its message and products on the road as a plan for the future.
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"The audience paid money to come hear music that they like. The artist knew what they were thinking about when they wrote it. If you can capture that visually, you win," explains lighting director Martin Thomas in the moments before Fantasia Barrino hits the stage.
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Every year, lighting manufacturers reveal their latest model of a fixture to go along with other competitor's models in that range. In order to make their product stand out among the other brands, there has to be something new and unique that the fixture can do. Clay Paky has indeed taken the next step in developing the most advanced effects on any large hard edge fixture I have seen.
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A Canadian creative and performing arts company, Ex Machina, spearheaded by director/actor/playwright/scenic artist Robert Lepage, is fusing high tech and high art for New York Metropolitan Opera's re-imagining of Richard Wagner's 19th Century four-part opera, Der Ring des Nibelungen, or The Ring. The production is using an innovative stage design, infrared interactive software and 3-D projection technology to update The Met's previous production of the controversial composer's masterwork – the more traditional Ring production by Otto Schenk and Günther Schneider-Siemssen, which ran for more than 20 years.
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