Metropolitan West Space Debuts with Versace Event and WorldStage Installation

NEW YORK CITY – The new Metropolitan West venue debuted during New York’s Fashion Week with the x Versus Versace Spring/Summer 2015 runway show and after-party. WorldStage supplied nearly 100 moving lights and 150 conventional lights and various LED fixtures. For sound, 40 Yamaha and 34 d&b speakers were used, running from Avid and newYamaha QL1 mixing desks.

NEW YORK CITY – For Train’s album release show at Radio City Music Hall, LD Brock Hogan specified 10 VL4000 Spot luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite. “Before I got the lights there were definitely certain elements that I was excited about using, such as the dual animation wheels, the prism and gobo combinations, and the shutters. These types of shows can be challenging because you really have to avoid generic looks in the design, but having 10 VL4000 Spots was perfect because there is nothing generic about their capabilities. They bring so much to the table and give a designer so many options. The VL4000 Spot literally does everything,” he said.

NAPA VALLEY, CA – The winemakers at Palmaz Vineyards rely on up-to-the minute data as much as time-honored techniques.  “How could we put the data in front of them?” asks president Christian Gastón Palmaz.  “An iPad accompanies the process but referencing 30 days worth of data across 36 fermenters on a 9.7” screen can be cumbersome.” The answer came in the form of projection onto the wine cave’s massive fermentation dome. Six Christie HD14K-M projectors powered by a Vista Systems’ Spyder X20 1608 were used to project onto the 72-foot diameter dome, a daunting technical challenge.

LOS ANGELES – Lighting Designers Adam Portelli and Michael Veerkamp of Team Imagination used 24 4Wall-supplied Nexus 4×4 panels from Chauvet Professional on the set of game show Bet on Your Baby. “The set already incorporated LED fixtures from season one, but we wanted to enhance the visual opportunities we saw,” recalled Portelli.  “Mike and I decided to use the Nexus panels to suggest a ‘stadium’ look that would make the pre-existing set seem bigger than ever.  By hanging the Nexus panels between the gaps of the set, we achieved that visual effect.”

PROVIDENCE, RI – A “Hair Hang Act” performance during a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus show here on May 4 took a disastrous turn when the apparatus the performers were hanging from suddenly fell to the ground. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined the incident occurred because the carabiner used to support the performers failed from being improperly loaded. The failure resulted in the eight employees performing the act falling more than 15 feet to the ground and sustaining serious injuries. A ninth employee, working on the ground, was struck by falling employees.

CRESSKILL, NJ — Crestron Electronics announced Nov. 4 that company founder and chairman George Feldstein died after battling brain cancer over the past year. Feldstein, a lifelong tinkerer, whose company developed AV and lighting control panels and systems for commercial applications along with residential control systems, was 73.