When lighting designer and production manager Alex Soto talked to his team about creating a look for reggaeton star Ozuna’s homecoming concert at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan last fall, he set a clear directive “Let’s make it look big!”
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The Wonderful, Wonderful world tour is the fifth major concert tour by the Las Vegas rock band The Killers, to support their fifth studio album (of the same name) which was released last September. Back behind the lighting console is Steven Douglas, the only LD they have had since he started working with them in 2005. The band started the tour playing festivals last fall, then touring in the U.K. and Ireland before Christmas, where they have had a large following for most of their career. They embarked on a U.S. arena run at the start of the year.
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As is the case with most large-scale designs, an artist and his production staff will sign off on some great artwork that paints a beautiful picture. Then it’s up to the production manager, with the aid of said designers, to find someone that can make this vision a reality. This often requires some engineering of the serious kind, as life and death can be involved when tons of scenery are moving overhead.
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Rumba Room Live, an upscale Latin-themed nightclub and concert venue in Anaheim, CA, has passed the one-year mark in its new Anaheim GardenWalk location. Built new from the ground up and open since Dec. 2016, Rumba Room Live has been drawing crowd with Elation entertainment lighting and video systems, energizing the nightclub scene in Anaheim. The 10,000-square foot venue has the flexibility to host 1,000 people and hold a variety of events, yet it maintains a chic, intimate feel.
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At the Day for Night festival, which made good use of a disused Post Office building in Houston, Texas, light artists and robots shared the stages with the music makers. Planning and staging for the event was right in line with the festival’s creative aesthetic. The names of each of the four stages — two outdoor, two indoor — are representative of the RGBW color model spectrum, known to tech geeks and video and lighting designers the world over.
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The term Latin Music gives the average listener a fairly straightforward idea of what they are about to hear. It would seem to be an easy genre to pigeonhole, as is the wont of most music journalists. But, pay a bit closer attention to the ensemble of percussionists that actually lead the band, more than just providing a backbeat, and the rich diversity of its myriad roots soon comes out. Michael Ledesma has been listening to those polyphonic rhythms all his life.
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George Elizondo is an award-winning, Parnelli nominated, well-respected video director. He’s made his name in concert touring and live events working with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Aerosmith, Sting, Chance The Rapper, Guns N’ Roses, Jennifer Lopez, the Dixie Chicks and Sir Elton John, among other. But Elizondo originally started out in the family business on the back lots of Hollywood. PLSN caught up with him to give us 1,000 words on his background, his work and what he loves about his job
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M.E.G.A. Systems Inc. (Mega) consists of the four Cabada brothers, doing what they do best — developing new fixtures, selling all kinds of gear, maintaining relationships with clients and backing their products. They do all these things well, because each brother has a separate job in the company that they are responsible for. They work in tandem, and despite their different roles, all company-wide decisions are made by the four partners. On top of that, I love hanging out with all of them because they are happy, fun people who have a zest for life.
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The 17th annual Parnelli Awards gala, held Friday, Jan. 26 at the Anaheim Hilton during NAMM 2018, honored Bobby “Boomer” Thrasher, Jonathan Smeeton and John Stadius with the Lifetime Achievement Award, Visionary Award and Audio Innovator Award, respectively.
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It is, I think, uncontroversial to consider the VL3000 spot fixture as having a special place of prestige among intelligent fixtures. In that 1200-watt fixture Vari-Lite realized a truly excellent light, one that set the standard for the quality of its brightness, effects and optics, and it has been used extensively in entertainment lighting since its inception. It was, to understate things, a very usable intelligent light.
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If there is one category that has changed dramatically over the last few years, it would be moving heads with white-light only LED light sources. Three years ago, all the major manufacturers offered at least a pancake LED fixture. With a few notable exceptions — Claypaky has an excellent one — not as many of these particular fixtures are offered these days. So for PLSN’s Buyers Guide this month, we decided to run the gamut, expanding the focus to include all kinds of products with a white light LED light source, ranging from LED tape to spotlights and lights designed for use with a camera.
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When you are given a project that will require a variety of images and clips to be displayed on LED walls with unusual orientations, how do you prepare for programming? Recently I encountered this scenario and in the process of working out the details, I found a unique solution to this very specific situation that I think deserves sharing.
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