Nashville and the phrase professional songwriting are practically synonymous. The city’s importance to contemporary and traditional American country music is undeniable and self-evident. But in recent years, Nashville has experienced an influx of recording artists of all stripes, positioning the capital of the Volunteer State as an emerging force in the live-event industry.
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The very first College Football Playoff National Championship Game took place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX on Jan. 12, replacing the BCS National Championship Game of seasons past, and with it came a whole weekend of festivities, none of which were brighter than CMT’s Ultimate Kickoff Party.
Read More »Held Nov. 21-30 at the L.A. Convention Center, the Los Angeles Auto Show (LAAS) is one of the most influential auto shows in the world. Production companies TLS Productions, Inc. and Christie Lites client Creative Technology played a major role at the event, using nearly 2,000 Elation Design PARs to light cars and scenic elements for some of the world’s top car brands.
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One of the great joys of writing features about the professional lighting industry is getting to talk to people who, even after decades in the business, are still very enthusiastic and excited about their work. Mark Ravenhill is one of those. At 44 he is the president of the U.S. operations of German Light Products, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. He speaks with the fervor of someone three weeks into a dream job, though he began his career in the light brigade at age 16, fresh out of the British equivalent of high school. “It’s all I’ve ever done,” the Southampton, England native explained.
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Samuel L. Jackson wants to know. Okay, maybe not. But I just finished a media server-heavy show and want to share with you what was on my desktop.
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The idea of curving video walls is nothing new. I have watched as video crews spend countless hours trying to rig straight pieces of video tiles at angles, usually in a vain attempt to get a seamless, curved video wall. Techs spent the day messing around with this game of millimeters by using rulers, changing rigging, nudging pieces a hair, adding clamps, and eventually they would kind of achieve what they were looking for. Now I’m not saying this was bad, but I always wondered why there wasn’t an easy way to do this. Couldn’t someone physically engineer a product to do this without the rigmarole? Well, apparently so.
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Today, I’m playing with a brand new video strip just released by Upstaging Inc., based in Sycamore, IL out of the Chicago area. This stealthy, thin slice of LED packs a punch and is perfect for almost any application. They can easily be mounted to anything on display, from temporary stage sets and truss to permanent installations including museums and storefronts.
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The Rogue RH1 Hybrid is one of Chauvet Professional’s latest offerings in the fast-growing area of hybrid fixtures — fixtures that fulfill more than one “traditional” role in a lighting rig, be that wash, hard-edge projector, or beam fixture. I spent a few afternoons playing with this new beam / spot hybrid light to see what this new fixture from Chauvet Professional can do.
Read More »Nearly every automated lighting console has a concept that allows for multiple banks or pages of playbacks. These pages (as they are usually called) allow the user to immediately change the purpose and function of playback buttons on the desk. Pages are very important in many different genres of entertainment, and it is important for lighting programmers to understand the possibilities and features associated with them.
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Moving up from lighting director to lighting designer can be an organic process. Or there could be an unusual story involved, as there is for Scott Pearson.
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Please welcome this Month’s LD at Large, John Featherstone. He has been illuminating just about everything since he was a mere lad. He is a principal in the worldwide Lighting and Visual design firm known as Lightswitch. –ed.
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