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‘HAILstorm’ Seen by 5,000, Despite the Rain

‘HAILstorm’ Seen by 5,000, Despite the Rain

To help celebrate its 200-year milestone during the school’s 2017 homecoming festivities, the University of Michigan turned to Maxin10sity, a Budapest, Hungary-based projection-mapping design firm founded by Tamás Vaspöri. The end result, HAILstorm, was a 10-minute spectacle that transformed the Rackham Building on the university’s Ingalls Mall into a creative array of trompe l’oeil imagery marking the university’s highlights and the passage of time.

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Frickin’ Lasers!

The coolest things in entertainment have always been, and will always be, lasers. That’s right, frickin’ lasers. At their height, sometime in the Pink Floyd era, lasers shot out over the auditorium and pierced the acrid pyro smoke like some alien fan pulsing in ridiculously fast waves, only in the next song to become shooting rods of intensely colored beams of acid gloriousness. I love lasers. I always have. You love them too.

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Fifteen Resolution Suggestions for 2018

Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping…into the future, and another New Year is upon us. (And yes, that song was from more than 40 years ago.) The beginning of the year is often a time of reflection and resolutions. While many will try to save more money, lose more weight and finish goals, there are many other things that we each can aim to improve upon in 2018. In no particular order, I present the following automated lighting programmer New Years resolutions.

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ETC ColorSource CYC

The ColorSource line from Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC), headquartered in Middleton, WI, includes fixtures, control and relay products. The fixture line consists of a spot, par, linear, and now, the newest addition, the ColorSource CYC wash light. Let us have a closer look at this luminaire (and see if that is actually a mirror).

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Is Toronto Home to the World’s Youngest Lighting Designer?

An avid reader of PLSN magazine, the recently-turned-16-year-old Christopher Da Silva, wanted to share his story and lighting success. So, the Toronto teen had a publicist spread his news. His biggest project to date? Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He was commissioned to create a new lighting plot for the musical, and directed the lighting. The set included LED drapes, lit staircases, and more lights than the previous production. The September event was the biggest multimedia production of Toronto’s CPA Centre, with an audience of more than 8,000.

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Arrgh Ye Prepared for the Pirate Invasion?

Shiver me timbers! All of these pirated products are driving me to the end of me plank! Walking through New York City a few days ago, I couldn’t help but notice the amount of designer handbags for sale on the street. Why would anyone go into a boutique store and pay 15 times the price when they could just get the “same” product from the head-to-toe denim-wearing, shady-looking, amateur salesman with the white Reeboks selling Coach handbags on the street corner from the milk carton above his ratty blanket?

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