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Welcome to Storm Season

Welcome to Storm Season

The 2012 summer touring season kicks off this month, a year after one of the most violent weather years on record: tornadoes in 2011 started the earliest ever — New Year’s Day — and went on to kill 550 people, injure 5,400 and cause $10 billion in damage, the most in U.S. history. Some of the biggest weather disasters in the touring business also took place last year, most notoriously the collapse of the stage, due to high winds from an approaching storm, at the Indiana State Fair last August that killed seven and injured dozens. And as I write this, people in Illinois, Kansas and Missouri are picking up the pieces from twisters that passed through on Leap Day, killing 14.

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Brad Schiller scribbled these notes, just prior to the LDI show in 2000.

A New Programming Paradigm

There is a new programming paradigm that is gaining acceptance in our industry.  As lighting continues to converge with video, we are seeing more and more specialization of equipment and skill sets.  While automated lighting consoles are fantastic for lighting tasks, they are not ideal for programming media servers and other video devices.

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Illustration by Andy Au

A Punk Rock Eyeful

Last fall, I heard from my friend Missy. She manages the Chicago-based rockers “Rise Against.”  They had been on tour last year and were looking to revamp their look and wanted some ideas. Their production guru is Jon Dunleavy, a man I had gigged with before. I reached out to him to inquire what they were looking for. They had a few requirements they wished to base a design around. First and foremost, they were a punk band. They didn’t need a lot of hoopla. Just a few backdrops and some rock ‘n’ roll lighting. They had some set carts that they would carry around the world this year, and they wanted a lighting package that could attach to the carts. They also wanted some “light boxes” that could spell out the letters, “R-I-S-E.”

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Capture Polar

Capture Polar v2.7

SAN ANTONIO, TX – Significant advancements have been made in the new release of lighting visualization software Capture Polar Version 2.7. The new software is packed with improvements focused mainly on paperwork and documentation. Plus, a new Free Student Edition is now available.

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Alcorn McBride training

Alcorn McBride Offers All-Day Training Session May 4

ORLANDO – Alcorn McBride will be hosting a free all-day training session May 4 for its show control products at the company’s headquarters here. The session is designed for technicians and programmers and will feature intermediate level training on Alcorn McBride’s V16 Pro/V4 Pro line of controllers, WinScript Live, Touch and ShowTouch. RSVP is required.

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Avicii

Avicii Tours Texas with High End Systems

AUSTIN, TX – Electronic musician Avicii took his DJ-run show on a Texas tour with lighting and control products from High End Systems. LD Justin Jenkins designed and supplied gear for shows in four of the five cities. The gear list included eight trackspot Bolts, four intellaspots, eight Technospots and a Road Hog Full Boar console.

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Bill Radcliffe

Radcliffe Returns to Wybron as Sales Director

Colorado Springs, CO  –  Bill Radcliffe has returned to Wybron in the role of Director of Sales. Radcliffe has held the previous position of International Sales Manager at Wybron from 1997-2000. Most recently he was at Event Production Services, where he was Business Development and Production Manager.

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