In its third year, the Imagine Music Festival moved to the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, GA, expanded to a three-day format (Aug. 26-28) and offered camping for the first time. The EDM festival was deemed a huge success, drawing close to 45,000 with a lineup that included Dillon Francis, Benny Benassi, Bogore, The Disco Biscuits, Excision, Gramatik, Nero, Showtek, Steve Angello, Zeds Dead and more.
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A Look at the Growing Complexity of Fixture Functions and Control Systems
ver the years, the complexity of intelligent lighting fixtures has finally gotten to the point where our own intelligence level has to rise up exponentially just to operate the gear we are using. Take a look around at what the shows we see now differ to the shows that we saw just a few years ago. Now take a moment to think about what we will be seeing in a few years from now. That’s right, those are chills running down your spine.
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Atlantic City Hotspot Features Elaborate Mirrorball, Chandelier
The Premier Nightclub in the Borgata casino gives a classic dance floor fixture — the mirror ball — a new twist. Stephen Lieberman of SJ Lighting provided his signature design for this world class, 18,000-square foot club, located in the space previously occupied by MIXX.
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A Talk with Debbie Sharpe, Catering Godess
As the old saying goes, an army marches on its stomach. Wise words that undeniably also apply to the concert touring industry. One of the people who have been in the concert touring trenches for a long time now is Debbie Sharpe. PLSN spoke with her about how she came to music touring, to food, and about what she’s cooking up these days.
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Now Entering their Fifth Decade, This Family Business is Still Setting Standards
“It all started with a trap case,” recalls Joe Calzone, as he reflects on the case making company he founded in 1975. The legendary company, now known as Calzone and Anvil Case, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Recognized as the largest fabricated case manufacturer in the world, the name is synonymous with protective cases across a broad spectrum of industries other than rock-n-roll.
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It used to be that you either wanted a hazy mist on stage to augment light beams or billowing fog effects for masking the performers.… Read More »Hazers and Smoke Machines
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With the news that Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street will return to the West Village in New York City this winter after an 11-year absence, it’s time to take a fresh look at Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s crowning masterpiece. Coincidentally, the timeless classic received two professional re-mountings in the summer of 2016 just a few hours from one another: one at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, and the other at the Glimmerglass Festival, a summer opera company outside of Cooperstown, NY. The same story was interpreted in two different manners.
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San Diego has been long known to produce some of the best surf-punk-ska style music originated by southern California bands. Slightly Stoopid, an act from San Diego’s Ocean Beach neighborhood, can’t really be labeled under any genre — they play it all. The band has been building up a fan base for some 20 years now; they were first signed to a recording contract when they were still in high school. In 2015, they released their 12th album, Meanwhile…Back at the Lab, and, as is their forte’, they hit the road.
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Unique Venue Gets First Major Rigging Upgrade in Nearly 50 Years
The Miller Theatre, located within Hermann Park in Houston, TX, is a unique venue. An outdoor, full-proscenium theatre, the original facility was built in 1923. Rebuilt in 1968, the Miller now includes a 64-by-41-foot stage, 54 line sets, an orchestra lift and a 100-ton air conditioning system to cool the performance area. Seating is provided for approximately 1,700 patrons, with a sloping lawn that accommodates roughly 4,500 more.
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Most lighting-related companies are named after their founders or with initials, descriptors or suitably tech-sounding neologisms. Only one—Walter Productions—takes its moniker from a vintage fire truck.
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Today’s CAD packages have — and this is perhaps an understatement — a lot of power beneath their hoods. An industry-standard drafting suite like Vectorworks or WYSIWYG costs thousands of dollars, not only in up-front costs but also in ongoing update and maintenance fees. For this, they provide a stunning array of features that — when used to their fullest extent — give the user a great deal of power. Learning to harness this potential, however, comes at the cost of a steep learning curve, many hours in training or searching through tutorials looking for the exact function one needs. The creators of Drafty thought this was unacceptable; that between ease of use and overbearing sophistication lay a realm of software usability begging for our acquaintance. And thus, Drafty was born.
The Dynamic Visual Design at MTV’s Video Music Awards
There were any number of standout moments during the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, broadcast and streamed live from NYC’s Madison Square Garden on Aug. 28. Whether it was Beyoncé, Rihanna, Nick Jonas, Future, or the return of the Pop Princess Britney Spears, certainly the visual design for VMAs yet again raised the bar. As ever, the show’s producers never want to repeat themselves, so it’s no small assignment to design a dynamic and unique environment inside the MSG arena. The task and wonderfully realized design was accomplished by the creative team of production designer Tom Scutt along with art director Matt Steinbrenner; screens producer Laura Frank, principal of Luminous FX; and lighting designer Bob Barnhart of Entertainment Design Group 22˚.