Skip to content

1000 Words with Lighting Director Paul Sonnleitner

Paul Sonnleitner keeping warm at his console position in Times Square for New Year’s Eve.

1000 Words with Lighting Director Paul Sonnleitner

Well-respected programmer and lighting director Paul Sonnleitner recently spoke with PLSN about how he started his ‘is this really a career’ career, and how he approaches his work. Sonnleitner’s credits range from Broadway to live television, from national historic events, including the Presidential Political Conventions to international sports, for which he shared Emmy nominations with LD David Grill for the 2007 Pan Am Games and the 2014 Central American Games. He also has marked New Year’s Eve for the last 13 years working in Times Square.

Read More »
From left: CAT Entertainment Service’s Jason Roof, Greg Landa, and Bobby De Luna

Cat Entertainment Services Powers Fox Sports Broadcast of Super Bowl

HOUSTON — Cat Entertainment Services noted that its technicians were on hand during Super Bowl LI at NRG Stadium to ensure a steady stream of power at the event. In all, the company fielded 16 technicians who were looking after a total of 8,600 kW of generator power, 1,300 kVA of UPS-supported power, and more than seven miles of cable. Pictured here, from left, are Jason Roof, Greg Landa, and Bobby De Luna

Read More »
The Nutcracker (Alberto Velazquez) and Marie (Amanda Assucena) dance under the dramatically expanded tree during the battle with the rats. Photo by Cheryl Mann

Re-imagining ‘The Nutcracker’

Christopher Wheeldon’s Nutcracker, at the Joffrey Ballet Chicago, Revitalizes a Holiday Classic

The strains of Tchaikovsky’s lush, spritely overture soar as the Chicago Philharmonic begins The Nutcracker, but when the curtain rises, we find that we are not, as we may expect, in the expansive living room of a traditional Victorian home. Instead, it’s Christmas Eve 1892 in Chicago, and one family on the outskirts of town conducts its fairly frugal preparations for Christmas Day.

Read More »
Chauvet Professional Strike 1

Chauvet Professional Strike 1

Ever since I saw a Police reunion show a few years ago, I have had visions of moles on steroids. They had giant 9-lite moles that looked like they had par 56 bulbs in them as opposed to the normal par 36 bulbs we see in blinders. I thought to myself ten years ago, “Why doesn’t someone just make a “Build your own Blinder kit?”

Read More »
Berenice and Albert Chauvet at NAMM 2017

A Chat with the Chauvets at NAMM

Crossing Over to the Brighter Side of Event Lighting

It’s Friday at the NAMM Convention, and the separate Chauvet Professional and Chauvet DJ booths are filled with people. That the company is having an active day at an M.I. convention is not surprising. What puzzles me, though, is the number of visitors who walk from one booth to the other.

Read More »
Apollo Avere 4UV

Apollo Avere 4UV

It’s become trite by now to point out just how much light-emitting diodes have changed things, and matured as a technology. The difference in every quantifiable variable we can look at in a light — the color rendering and gamut, the dimming, the brightness — has come so far as to make most comparisons to the very first LED devices designed for production laughable. Today, LED-based fixtures are beginning to challenge even large-format moving lights.

Read More »
The Sparkular

The Sparkular

The Sparkular is a DMX-controllable device that is capable of projecting up to a five-meter fountain of sparkles. This new product debuted at LDI 2016 and was named Best Debuting Product: Special Effects category. Since its inception, it has been used on the largest stages, from presidential campaigns to the 2016 American Music Awards.

Read More »
Substance Church's Northtown campus installed the new PixelFLEX wall

Substance Church in Minneapolis Installs a 47-Foot-Wide PixelFLEX Video Wall

MINNEAPOLIS — Adam Frey, technical director at Substance Church in Minneapolis, worked with integration partner Reach Communications to install a 47-foot-wide PixelFLEX video wall. The wall, which nearly fills the proscenium stage of the recently-built auditorium at Substance Church’s Northtown campus, measures 11.5 feet tall and is made with FLEXTour LED video panels. It can also be raised when not in use via a stage rigging system.

Read More »

LightParts Upgrades Victory World Church with Fixtures from High End Systems, Claypaky and GLP

[caption id="attachment_274623" align="alignnone" width="800"]Victory World Church gets assist from Light Parts[/caption]

NORCROSS, GA – Statistically the most diverse worship facility in North America, Victory World Church in Norcross, GA seats up to 12,000 parishioners a week. They broadcast their services to over 6,000 online viewers. Victory recently turned to LightParts for assistance in upgrading their lighting system, and a mix of new gear has now been installed in their worship facility. Included in the system are 16 High End Systems SolaWash Pro 2000 and 16 SolaSpot Pro 1500 LED fixtures, an HES Axon HD Pro and DP8000s, Hog4, Road Hog 4 and HedgeHog 4S consoles, eight Claypaky B-Eye K20s and 16 GLP X4 Bar 20 fixtures.

Read More »

ONErack Adds New Dual Redundant, Hot Swappable Power Supply at ISE 2017

[caption id="attachment_274620" align="alignnone" width="800"]Hot swappable Power Supply[/caption]

ERLANGER, KY, – tvONE a leading designer and manufacturer of cutting-edge video and multimedia processing equipment, solved the AV world’s rack mounting nightmare last year after revealing the ONErack, a universal racking mounting solution with power and cooling. This year at ISE in Amsterdam, tvONE makes enhancements to the award winning solution; generating even more appeal on stand 5-S60.

Read More »

XYZ Cultural Technology Now an Authorized Dealer of ETC Lighting Products

[caption id="attachment_274616" align="alignnone" width="594"]XYZ bacomes ETC Dealer [/caption]

MONTREAL – After several months spent demonstrating the quality of its integration team and solid organization, XYZ Cultural Technology has officially been invited by ETC (Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc.) to join the exclusive ranks of its authorized distributors. Joe DiNardo, Regional Manager for ETC, explains that “it is very difficult to become an ETC dealer, but once you’re on board, you have the backing of our Sales, Marketing and Manufacturing force. We were very impressed with how XYZ presented themselves and we are very proud to welcome them as partners.”

Read More »