Did you happen to see a snowman asking a group of Democratic presidential candidates about global warming? If you did, then you were watching the CNN/YouTube Democratic Presidential Debate. I had the opportunity to work on the event, but this time I was the lighting programmer, and I was not involved in the video production. But it’s interesting to note how a production changes when there is video in the mix.
Read More »Last month, I talked a bit about the recently approved ACN (Architecture for Control Networks) standard. Now that you know a little more about the reasons for the new standard and some of the underlying concepts, I’m going to talk about a couple of specific pieces to the puzzle that will benefit systems large and small.
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Martin Professional recently added two new versions to its Magnum family of foggers: the Magnum 1200 and Magnum 1800. Each of these machines has similar features, including the way they look, an aluminum carrying handle on top, a storage compartment on the side of the unit to store accessories and a remote timer control.
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Compulite is an Israeli-based lighting console manufacturer that has been in business for over 25 years. During the last few years, the company has expanded its range to include several new models. The Compulite Vector now comes in four models that vary according to how many faders and DMX512 outputs you need for your purposes. The company also manufactures programming wings and playback wings that can be used with an outboard PC. The playback wing can be used in conjunction with any model to add an additional 10 faders and cue keys. We had an opportunity to Road Test the Vector Red.
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No matter which part of our biz you’re in, chances are you’ve worked a business conference. You set up like a dog for 18 hours straight, just to repeat the procedure for days. But as the meetings commence, you become aware of the hardest part of the whole gig — staying awake.
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Audra Breyer integrates the "boy's club."
Audra Breyer is a Jill-of-all-trades, who just happens to be the master of integration on John Mayer’s current tour. We caught up with her long enough to find out what it’s like being a woman in a boy’s club, how she got to be where she is today and the thing she likes least about our industry.
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Mark Dobrow makes Mary Poppins fly.
When you have a musical show that encompasses whirlwind set and costume changes, magic tricks, a flying nanny, seven floors of dressing rooms, hundreds of lighting, sound and automation cues, nearly 50 crew members and a 40,000-pound house set that moves and breaks apart, not to mention requiring four assistant stage managers to run it, you call on a production stage manager who really knows what they’re doing. A highly experienced Broadway and touring veteran, Mark Dobrow rises to the major challenge of running Disney’s hit show Mary Poppins each and every night. His love for his work and relaxed demeanor undoubtedly make him a sea of calm in a turbulent backstage environment where somebody or something is always in motion.
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Production and Tour Manager for Jimi Hendrix, Queen, Pioneered the Tour Manager Position with Clear Head, Cool Hand
Stickells was one of the early innovating production managers and influenced the whole shape of gigging in the early years,” states Brian Croft, recipient of the first Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. “He famously dealt with any logistic problems with great confidence and is admired by everyone he does business with to this day.” Read More »
Industry called on to help create music center, vocational school for disadvantaged youth in Phoenix — and beyond.
Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Foundation (SRF), a Christian nonprofit Arizona Corporation he formed with Chuck Savale in 1995 dedicated to teenagers and children in need, has long held popular events like the Christmas Pudding Concerts and celebrity golf tournaments to raise money and awareness for their cause. Now they announce their most ambitious goal yet: a 29,000-square-foot center where troubled youth can learn everything about the music industry, including what it takes to run a concert tour.
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Nikola Tesla was down on his luck. It was 1886, and he had just lost his own company, Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing, to his financial backers who believed that Tesla’s ideas were impractical. He had no money, and he was forced to work as a manual laborer to put food on the table and have a place to live.
Tesla was one of the most brilliant inventors of all time. Before he walked off his job working for Thomas Edison, and before he started his own company and lost it to his investors, he conceived an idea for building an AC induction motor. At the time, there was no such thing.
Read More »Nikola Tesla was down on his luck. It was 1886, and he had just lost his own company, Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing, to his financial backers who believed that Tesla’s ideas were impractical. He had no money, and he was forced to work as a manual laborer to put food on the table and have a place to live.
Tesla was one of the most brilliant inventors of all time. Before he walked off his job working for Thomas Edison, and before he started his own company and lost it to his investors, he conceived an idea for building an AC induction motor. At the time, there was no such thing.
Read More »There are many concepts and principles every automated lighting programmer should know. The most important is probably the principle of “tracking.” It is actually a very simple concept, yet is often the most difficult to teach and learn. However, once tracking is understood, its impor-tance to automated lighting data becomes clear.
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