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USITT & Friends Celebrate Rigging Safety Day April 24

The author’s AV setup for the worship band at NOW Church in Ocala, FL includes gear from Blackmagic Design.

Creating Broadcast Quality Worship Video

What do television and a Sunday church service have in common? While many people might think not much, the two actually have a lot in common. When it comes to AV, live production and broadcast, the worship market is a huge one. And professional broadcasts are no longer reserved for a handful mega churches. More and more of today’s churches are turning to television and live broadcasts to help spread their messages, keep their communities informed and reach new members. And thanks to advances in technology, it’s now more feasible than ever before.

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Fig. 1 - with expanded fixture functionality comes an increase in programming complexity.

Controlling Complex LED Fixtures by Pixel

As manufacturers of automated lighting continue to develop fixtures with multiple LED sources combined into one unit, the challenge of programming these fixtures increases. When units like the A.Leda B-Eye (Clay Paky), the Shapeshifter (High End Systems) or the MagicPanel 602 (Ayrton) are specified in a lighting rig, the programmer will likely be faced with the choice of whether to use the fixtures in a reduced mode or in a pixel mapping mode. A couple of factors will usually determine which mode the programmer goes with, including the vision for how the fixtures are to be used in the show and, just as importantly, the amount of available programming time available. Here are some tips to help take the second item off the list.

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RoxBox EXA from Blizzard Lighting. UV model pictured here.

RoxBox EXA from Blizzard Lighting

Blizzard Lighting, a relative newcomer on the scene, has recently been making waves with their new lighting products. I got the chance to check out one of their recently introduced fixtures, the RokBox EXA. There’s no shortage of LED PARs on the market — just about ever manufacturer has one — so I spent a few days looking at the capabilities of their new light to see what set it apart.

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Ushio Pro-Panel V2 Soft Light, reviewed in PLSN, April 2015

Ushio Pro-Panel V2 Soft Light

Soft light fixtures are primarily used in cinematography and photography. The basic reason for this is that the light emitted out of these fixtures tends to wrap around an object, leaving no shadow behind the object. It can also be used as “Fill” lighting, supplementing other practical light fixtures and reducing any shadows caused by them on a set. These fixtures are often a staple in grip trucks and used in close proximity to the object one is illuminating as the fall off of light is rapid with this fixture. Many directors of photography have been known to swear that the use of soft lights eliminates skin wrinkles on camera.

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GLP impression X4 Bar 20, reviewed in PLSN Magazine April 2015. Both the 20 and 10 are pictured here.

GLP impression X4 Bar 20

LED strip lights have been around a while. These battens have lots of uses, and it seems that many are good for one function, but they may not fare well at another. Some didn’t use 4-in-1 LEDs, some didn’t line up perfectly in a row, and my biggest pet peeve — none of them could ever illuminate a whole backdrop evenly, from top to bottom with just a ground row of fixtures. Then along comes this product from GLP.

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Moore chose the Sapphire Touch for this show due to the mix of fixture types and because the show was being filmed.

Teenage Cancer Trust Concert Series Features Frank Turner, Lit with Avolites Sapphire Touch Console

LONDON – For the 15th annual Teenage Cancer Trust concert series at Royal Albert Hall, top music and comedy performers came together to raise money to help young people facing cancer. Closing out this year’s event, Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls headlined at the venue, with LD Shaun Moore using Avolites’ Sapphire Touch console for the occasion.

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