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PRG Used Laserworld Group Lasers for Festhalle Displays at Prolight+Sound

PRG used Laserworld Group lasers at Prolight+Sound

PRG Used Laserworld Group Lasers for Festhalle Displays at Prolight+Sound

FRANKFURT, Germany – PRG’s impressive Highlight Show in the Festhalle at Prolight+Sound has become an annual tradition of sorts. For 2016, first show coincided with the LEA Awards on April 4, before the PL+S show floor opened. A laser display accompanied a performance by the group, Glasperlenspiel. In the days that followed (April 5-8), the highlight show appeared every half hour while the show floor was open. All laser systems on the PRG Stage were manufactured by the Laserworld Group

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Programmers who grow adept at Adobe After Effects...

Video Experience Helps Lighting Programmers Excel

I recently came across a great article outlining how working in theatre while in school prepares you for adulthood, and I started thinking about how my time in college theatre had helped me on my career path in lighting. Today, as I find myself more and more involved with the world of video, I realize that working with media servers has helped me be a better lighting programmer too. How so?

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Roland V-1HD Video Switcher

Roland V-1HD Video Switcher

There is a saying that big things come in small packages. Measuring in at a whisper over 12 inches long and 4 inches wide, the new HD video switcher from Roland is proof of that. This sophisticated-yet-compact video switcher combines professional compositing features such as keying, graphic inserts, titling and numerous visual effects with the ability to connect to a variety of HDMI sources, smart phones and video cameras…even a 12 channel audio mixer. Safe to say, this switcher can manage a lot.

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Photo Courtesy Sennheiser

Lady Gaga’s High-Tech Grammy Tribute to David Bowie

For this year’s Grammy Awards, held on Feb. 15, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences asked Lady Gaga to perform a tribute to the late music legend David Bowie, who died Jan. 10 at age 69. Gaga, her creative team at Haus of Gaga, along with creative collaborators at Prettybird and Studio XO, merged music and technology for a performance that evoked Bowie’s defining talent as both a visual artist and musician.

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Screenworks' Andy Gerber, Danny O'Bryen and Randy Mayer

Screenworks/NEP’s Danny O’Bryen: A Career in Video

It’s hard to remember a time when video wasn’t part of the live event landscape, though Danny O’Bryen sure does. He was there. As a kid, O’Bryen’s first gig in the business was plastering Boston with concert posters for $50 a day. This led to some live event work and then, wisely, he dabbled in video in the earliest part of the visual revolution..

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“Ballyhoo GO!”

According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, “Ballyhoo” is defined as “a noisy attention-getting demonstration or excited commotion.” Every automated lighting programmer has created ballyhoos for a production at some point in his or her career. In the lighting world, ballyhoos were first invented by asking followspot operators to swing the spots around in a figure eight motion on the stage or house curtain. Now, with automated lighting fixtures and consoles, ballyhoos can be as simple as the press of a button or complex programmed sequences. Although a ballyhoo might seem like a simple task, there are many things a programmer should take into consideration.

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Smoke + Mirrors Live, which premiered March 2, captured all angles of Imagine Dragons’ Toronto concert last July. Photo by Fathom Events

Capturing Imagine Dragons on Film; More TV, Movie and Video News

The Imagine Dragons film, Smoke + Mirrors Live, uses scenes captured at their Toronto show on July 4, 2015. The movie premiered for one night only March 2 in select cinemas worldwide. It’s now available on Blu-Ray. Imagine Dragons LD Sooner Routhier and lighting director Mitchell Schellenger worked with film director Dick Carruthers, director of photography Rob Scarborough and a film crew of about 45 people with an audience lighting package to help make the live show appealing to the cameras.

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Illustration by Andy Au

Rules for Free Labor: Okay vs. Not Okay

Your boss heard that you really love the theater and would appreciate some extra hours on show site, so he offers you the chance of a lifetime to come and work on his next show for no money, as an intern of sorts. You jump at the chance to gain experience. The next gig comes along, and he asks you do it for no money again. Now you realize that you have no way to get to the show site because your gas tank is empty.

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Jordan’s Furniture

LD for Jordan’s Furniture in CT Uses Enttec Datagate MK2 as Console-to-DMX512-Device Bridge

NEW HAVEN, CT. – Jordan’s Furniture is using Enttec products to beckon customers with a plethora of theatrical LED lighting that complements the retail outlet’s other customer-friendly attractions. Lighting Designer Michelle Caron of Clair Solutions of Manheim, PA relied on Enttec products to control 64 LED fixtures from several different manufacturers via DMX. Enttec’s Datagate MK2 works as a bridge between the lighting controls and any DMX512 device.

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South Africa’s Oldest Festival Gets New Looks with Chauvet Professional STRIKE 4 and Rogue Fixtures

South Africa’s Fen Festival Lit with Chauvet Strike 4, Rogue and Legend 230SR Beam Fixtures

UNDERBERG, South Africa  – For the main stage at the Splashy Fen Festival in South Africa this year, LD Shaniel Laloo used STRIKE 4, Rogue R2 Wash and Legend 230SR Beam fixtures from Chauvet Professional. Laloo used the intense output of the STRIKE 4 LED multi formatted warm white fixture with the color rendering capabilities of the Rogue R2 Wash and Legend 230SR Beam, flying all of these fixtures on an overhead truss grid that covered the top of the main stage.

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