Let me start by thanking all of you that commented on Part 1 (PLSN, June 2017, page 75). I had no idea so many of you were so interested in this stuff. My wife is very happy that I finally have some new friends to talk to about these things. A few of you were thrown off by the eight-year life cycle comment, but I think you got confused between LED and line array.
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800 Elation Fixtures Play Dominant Role in Production Design
The Eurovision Song Contest is a unique experience in the world of entertainment made all the more special by use of some of the largest lighting and video systems you’ll find on any show.
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Crowd Takes Over Downtown Streets During Team’s Stanley Cup Run
Huge crowds descended upon downtown Nashville during the 30 days the Predators advanced through the NHL Western Conference, with hockey fever building to a frenzy during the 2017 Stanley Cup Finals series in early June. All that took placed in late May and early June, during one of Nashville’s busiest times of the year, with CMA Fest [June 8-11] and the CMT Awards [June 7] and related concerts happening around the same time. Fan fever pitch in the city streets was unlike anything the aptly nicknamed “Nash Vegas” had ever seen before.
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As I walk along convention floors, I often notice cool little gadgets, from tools to lights to smoke devices and more. Each of these fits a nice little niche in our world of live events. Whether it’s a physical gadget, pressurized effect or an electronic device, we’ve compiled a few nifty devices we felt were worth a look this month.
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The Light Source epitomizes the American family-owned business, fabricating quality original products in their shop in Charlotte, NC. Officially entering their 30th year in business in 2017, they show no sign of slowing down as they continue to fabricate unique items that stem from client needs. PLSN sat down with Eric and Joyce Von Fange to talk about their company.
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Back for their third tour, siblings Julianne and Derek Hough of TV’s Dancing With the Stars fame were out on their Move — Beyond — Live On Tour, which launched April 19 in Akron, OH and crisscrossed the country before concluding in Santa Rosa, CA June 17. With a combined total of nine wins on the show, the dancers are delighting audiences with their routines with the show visuals adding their own razzle-dazzle. The tour’s designers include Peter Morse (lighting) and Butch Allen (set). We spoke with Morse about the show.
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Fresh Looks for a Unique Co-Headlining Tour
One of this summer’s best tickets for fans to spend their money on is the co-headliner of a set of artists who achieved that rare strata of both popular and critical acclaim, top forty titans Tears For Fears (TFF) and Hall & Oates (H&O).
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The “40th Anniversary Tour” Kicks It Up a Notch
For Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 40th Anniversary Tour, lighting designer/director and set designer Stanley A. Green is at front of house, enjoying how the audience is reacting to tour visuals that have grown in size, shape and overall visual impact from previous tours. One index of the growth in production can be seen in the parking lots outside the arenas, stadiums and sheds on the tour’s itinerary: Yep, that’s 12 semi-trucks of gear.
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Roger Waters, the co-founder of Pink Floyd, is out on his “Us + Them” tour in support of his new solo album, Is This the Life We Really Want? His live set included five cuts from the new album, with topics ranging from President Trump, climate change and racism. Those things are magnified with the tour’s production visuals — which includes a massive video wall and a truss that lowers down from the rafters in the center of the arena to reveal a replica of the Battersea Power Station from Pink Floyd’s Animals record cover (including smoke chimneys).
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Mark Thompson Solved a Scenic Puzzle for Broadway’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Broadway’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has been dazzling audiences with its fast pace, dazzling set pieces, and the buoyant energy of a nearly 40-person ensemble; notably, charismatic star Christian Borle as eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka, who offers an exclusive tour of his factory to five lucky children.
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Tour: April-December: U.K., Canada, U.S., Europe.
Design: “It is all ‘big picture’ stuff. Other than my console, we are not carrying gear, so every night is a different show — it may be all par cans one night, moving lights the next or a mix of the two. I take a theatrical approach, trying to keep a consistent look for the Gipsys, lighting the stage of 11 musicians and highlighting vocals or a guitar break as needed. It’s not flash and trash.”
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“Attention all lighting manufacturers: Concerning the continuous rise in color temperatures in your discharge lights. Some of us LD’s still like the color red.”
This was a recent post on social media. The time has come to call out the system, the trend, the fact that almost everyone is sacrificing the LD’s right for a full color palette for more lumen output, higher CRI in LEDs and a native color temperature of 7,000° Kelvin in discharge fixtures.
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