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Leading Mexican Rental Company Invests In Chauvet Professional Maverick MK2 Wash

Leading Mexican Rental Company Invests In Chauvet Professional Maverick MK2 Wash

[caption id="attachment_274613" align="alignnone" width="800"]Serpro invests in Chauvet[/caption]

MONTERREY, Mexico –Serpro Producciones, one of the largest audio and lighting rental companies in Mexico, has taken a major step toward increasing its ability to serve customers by adding 90 Chauvet Professional Maverick MK2 Wash fixtures to its inventory. The company invested in the RGBW LED moving washes after carefully evaluating a wide variety of options. The fixtures have been specified for Justin Bieber’s “Purpose Tour” appearances in Mexico later in February.

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Ron StageMaster from Eilon Engineering Monitors Large Rig for 2016 ‘Swedish Idol’ Finale

[caption id="attachment_274610" align="alignnone" width="2000"]Eilon Engineering load cells[/caption]

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – With a history of pop music success, including multiple Eurovision Song Contest victories, perhaps no country embraces reality song competitions like Sweden. One good example is the well-known Idol franchise, which has been one of the most popular shows on Swedish television since debuting in 2004. The 12th Swedish Idol season started airing on TV4 in August 2016 with a finale show held Dec. 8 at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm.

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Lawo V_Pro8 8 Channel Video Processing Toolkit Debuts at ISE 2017

[caption id="attachment_274607" align="alignnone" width="800"]V_Pro8 8 Channel Video Processing toolkit[/caption]

AMSTERDAM – At this year’s ISE show in Amsterdam, Lawo will debut its V__pro8 8-channel video processing tool armed with a comprehensive software update. With its latest update, Lawo’s V__pro8 became even more powerful, further increasing its features-per-RU density. Amongst the latest additions is an updated A/V sync tool, which, in addition to the native V__line sync pattern and the EBU pattern, can now also read the Vistek VALID8 format. Furthermore, the integrated quad-split multiviewer now features multi-colored Tally lamps, which are switchable via Ember+, allowing to integrate the MV tally in the overall tally system of your installation.

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MMX4x2

Lightware Unveils Compact MMX4x2-HT200 Mini Matrix Switcher

[caption id="attachment_274604" align="alignnone" width="1274"]MMX4x2[/caption]

Lightware USA has introduced the MMX4x2-HT200, an HDBaseT-compatible, single CATx-based mini matrix switcher designed for smaller collaborative places.  Lightware USA, based in the town of Lake Orion, MI, is the US sales and support office for Lightware products. The new matrix switcher has a uniquely small footprint that makes it ideal for classrooms, meeting and conference rooms, control rooms and home cinemas.  It easily handles laptop, PC, videoconferencing and cloud sources and outputs to videoconferencing systems, monitors and speakers.

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A Perfect View

Back in 1990, I was working for a theatre complex that opened a brand new multi-million dollar venue with two state-of-the-art theatres. Each theatre was designed with a booth that included large windows and built-in desks for the consoles. We were all shocked to find that the nice, new tech booths did not allow a good view of either stage. It seemed that the architects did not understand the diagonal view that was required. We ended up building a raised floor into each booth so that our viewing angle of the stage was correct. Since that time, I have programmed and operated lighting consoles in a variety of locations with various types of views. It is very important when setting up your front of house location that you consider your view of the stage.

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Justin Kitchenman served as LD and lighting director for Luke Bryan's 'Kill the Lights' tour. His new company is called Align Design Group. Luke Bryan 2016 photo by Todd Kaplan.

Kitchenman Creates New Company; CMA Touring Award Winners, More…

Production, lighting and media designer Justin Kitchenman started the New Year by creating a new company, Align Design Group in Nashville. “The focus of the Align Design Group is going to be live production, mainly concert touring,” he told PLSN. “But, as with all ventures, the future is a great mystery, with many twists and turns! I look forward to the future and all of the opportunities it brings.”

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Illustration by Andy Au

The Politics of Color Selection

I heard about a tragedy the other day. A designer lost a tour based solely on color selection. A particular band that chooses a different color for each album cover hired this person to do their tour. During a televised promotion for their upcoming tour, the production manager mentioned to the designer/programmer that they would like the color of their album to be in every single song. The designer chose to go against the band’s wishes.

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Video shoot in Bandit Lites rehearsal facility for Taylor X

Bandit’s Venue One Rehearsal Facility Hosts Video Shoot for Taylor X

NASHVILLE — For Taylor X’s recent video shoot capturing her performance of her urban pop dance song, “No Ceiling,” which took place at the rehearsal facility that Bandit Lites provides to its clients, LD Erik Parker availed himself of the some of the light fixtures that Bandit has in its inventory, including Vari-Lite VL3000 Spots, GLP impression X4S, Martin Atomic Strobes and ETC Source Four Pars.

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Stampede Drone Arena Returns to ISE for 2017

Stampede Drone Arena Returns to ISE for 2017

AMSTERDAM — The Stampede Drone Arena, which debuted at ISE 2016, returned to the big AV trade show, which runs Feb. 7-10 at RAI Amsterdam. This year’s Stampede Drone Area drew visitors to Hall 14 at Stand 14-A100 with a roster of manufacturers that included Yuneec, DJI, VideoBank, Virtual Air Boss, Trackimo, Agrowing, GPC, xFold, Amimon, Elistair, Droneify, Hoverfly, Christie, Vidyo, Aerialtronics, and Hitachi. Stampede also announced updated training programs and educational resources for 2017.

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ETC Introduces Two New Employees and a Job Transfer

[caption id="attachment_274591" align="alignnone" width="800"]David Hilton, Erin Giblin and Jacob Coakley (l-r)[/caption]

MIDDLETON, WI– In 2016, ETC hired a record number of new employees and had more internal job transfers than any year before. This year has started out the same, with many new employees joining the ETC team and employees moving into new jobs within the company. Erin Giblin and Jacob Coakley are two of those new faces, while David Hilton transitions into a new role at ETC.

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Main Stage Reinvented at Toronto Centre for the Arts

[caption id="attachment_274588" align="alignnone" width="800"]Toronto Centre for the Arts gets a visual assist from TCC[/caption]

TORONTO – An underutilized 1,800-seat Broadway-style touring hall underwent an ambitious renovation that resulted in two new venues. The 580-seat Lyric Theatre occupies the seating area of the former auditorium. Twelve rows were removed to accommodate the stage and the rake of the orchestra and balcony seating. Backlit acoustic panels–each programmable with color-changing LED fixtures–wrap the room, defining the proscenium opening and intensifying the theatricality of the space. Theater Consultants Collaborative out of Chapel Hill, N.C. was  involved with the project.

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