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Redundancy

A good backup system may be redundant, but that doesn't mean it's not important.

Redundancy

What is an often-overlooked- but-essential element of any lighting or video control system? The Backup. Whether it’s a lighting console or a media server, the backup is the unsung hero of the show. Often it sits there — quietly, lonely almost — as if to say “Put me in coach, I’m ready to play,” but never getting called upon (hopefully). Yet it shows up the next day without complaint. How do you plan for this important piece of the control puzzle? The answer: Very carefully.

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Images courtesy of Intuitive Aerial, AUVSI and Stampede

Cleared for Takeoff

Back in the fall of 2015, I authored three “Video World” articles for PLSN regarding the emerging drone revolution, and its remarkable impact on our AV industry. Also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) or Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), these versatile drones are being used for both primary and B-roll footage in everything from commercials to documentaries to network programming. Lately, we’ve come to expect that dramatic shot that rises up over the trees, or that flies along the river — and the footage is breathtaking.

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Clay Paky Scenius Profile

Clay Paky Scenius Profile

It was just a few months ago that I was looking at the spot version of this light, the Scenius Spot (PLSN, March 2016, page 62). It impressed me then; Clay-Paky is known for their high quality fixtures, and this one was no exception, with excellent dimming and color mixing. This time, we look at the Profile version of the Scenius, intended to fill a role needing additional beam control and shaping — particularly useful in theatrical contexts, or as front lighting for actors and scenery.

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The upgrade included 692 1,000W GigaTera SUFA A LED fixtures. Photo by Arturo Pardavila III

Yankee Stadium’s LED Lighting Upgrade is a Home Run

As Major League Baseball (MLB) heads into the playoffs, we thought it should be noted how good the New York Yankees have looked this season… that is to say how good they’ve looked under the new lights at Yankee Stadium. Prior to the 2016 season, the Yankees organization completely replaced its High Intensity Discharge (HID) sports lighting with a fully LED-based lighting system. Through this lighting retrofit process, they seriously cut their energy bills and significantly improved the quality of the on-field lighting for both the fans and the players.

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Chauvet Maverick MK2 Spot

Chauvet Maverick MK2 Spot

I recently had the pleasure of programming the Chauvet booth for InfoComm 2016. I was able to use the newest fixtures that the Florida-based company had to offer. The Maverick MK2 Spot especially impressed me. I didn’t even realize that it was an LED fixture until I was told half way through the day. I’ve known Chauvet to be the less expensive alternative to other manufacturers for years. This fixture has made me rethink my perception of Chauvet in several ways. Chauvet’s Professional product line is continuing the trend that the Nexus Panel started, taking Chauvet off of the alternate list and moving them to the preferred list.

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ETC CS20 and CS40 consoles

ETC ColorSource Consoles

What is ColorSource? Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC) has given birth to a family of products that is continually growing. It started with an only child, a Par (wash) fixture, followed by spot fixture. Wireless DMX and relays shortly joined. Now, new to the family, is a series of four consoles: the CS20 and CS40 (reviewed here) and the soon-to-be-released CS20AV and CS40AV. (We’ll probably be kicking the tires of the AV consoles at some point down the road.)

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Russ Felton, crew chief at BML Blackbird

So You Wanna Be a Crew Chief…

Be careful what you ask for. A lighting crew chief is the one who has to take whatever “rainbows and unicorns” vision a designer has plotted on paper and actually hang the corresponding, functioning rig. The first person that a lighting designer has to choose, once the rig has been confirmed, is the Lighting Crew Chief. This will be the person who is in charge of organizing, assembling and managing all of the logistics involved with the lighting rig. Here is a short list of the major qualities that a designer looks for when selecting a touring lighting crew chief.

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How Do You GO?

Some people read palms, and others are into studying the structure of feet or bumps on a head to determine personality characteristics about others. I have discovered that lighting board operators each posses a unique style when it comes to pressing the GO button on a desk. The number and placement of fingers, method of pressing and other indicators point to psychological information about the operator. What follows is a guide detailing various methods of pressing the GO button and what they mean about the presser.

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The ONE Grand Show in Berlin. Photo by Bernhard Musil

Peter Morse and The ONE; Debating in the Best Light; Wonder in the Woods; More

Peter Morse spent the past two years designing the elaborate lighting for a large German production show, The ONE Grand Show, which runs for two years in residency at the Friedrichstadt Palast in Berlin. The extravaganza, called “the most lavish show in Europe,” started previews at the 97-year-old theatre on Sept. 22, with the world premiere set for Oct. 6 and more shows planned through mid-2018. With a budget of 11 million Euros ($12.3 million), the show aims to take the audience “on a dreamlike journey through time in search of the person who means everything to us: The One.”

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Illustration by Andy Au

The Great Library of Libraries

We need to come up with a solution for all of the elusive fixture profiles that are costing us countless hours of hunting down DMX charts and building our own hacked-together libraries. In the last few months, I have received several emails, text and even Facebook messages asking if I had a fixture profile for everything from a two channel smoke machine to a 48-channel beam wash hybrid fixture. These cries for help are coming from newbies as well as top-level programmers who are scrambling to find the correct profile for the current fixture that needs to be patched immediately so that they can get to programming.

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Stampede’s Big Book of AV and Conference Series will stop in Toronto on Tuesday, Oct. 18.

Stampede Brings Road Show Event to Toronto on Oct. 18

TORONTO — Stampede’s Big Book of AV and Conference Series will stop in Toronto on Tuesday, Oct. 18. The event promises to be the company’s biggest-ever Canadian event, with technology updates, training forums, industry insights, and one-on-one networking opportunities among the benefits to attendees.

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