Often enough my work takes me abroad. And just when I thought I’d played a gig in every corner of the world, some band has found a new locale. There was a time when South America seemed like a distant land, an impossible place to do a proper show. But that’s in the past. Now I get to teach the locals how to do shows in lovely places like Ethiopia and Kazakhstan.
Read More »Last week I was out in San Diego and Anaheim doing rehearsal shows for Marco Antonio Solis. My priority to this gig is to board… Read More »Dos Rehearsals
Read More »Many lighting companies all over the world employ someone who can speak English. Once I find out who this person is, I start corresponding. The… Read More »Overseas gigs require planning and patience.
Read More »DVI, or Digital Visual Interface, carries an uncompressed digital video signal to a digital display device such as an LCD display or projector. The protocol… Read More »Understanding DVI
Read More »Apple will let anyone sell software on the App Store, giving software developers instant access to an international distribution hub. While there are pros and… Read More »Using the iPhone for Stage Lighting
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SYRACUSE, NY — For the 20th year, J. R. Clancy is giving away free slide rules to rigging technology dealers and installers. The newly revised sixth edition of the Clancy Slide Rule is made to be easy-to-use, fit in a shirt pocket, and give riggers a way to quickly calculate ratios and measurements commonly used in rigging.
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Clay Paky Alpha 300 Series
Clay Paky has introduced four compact 300-watt moving yoke projectors: Alpha Beam 300, Alpha Spot HPE 300, Alpha Spot 300 and Alpha Wash 300 washlight. Alpha Beam 300 pro-duces a parallel beam, similar to that of an ACL. Alpha Spot HPE 300 features zoom, CMY, 8+1 color wheel, 15 gobos, morphing effect, rotating prism, frost, dimmer on dedicated channel, iris and strobe. Alpha Spot 300 features two 8+1 color wheels, 15 gobos, morphing effect, rotating prism, dimmer on dedicated channel and strobe. Alpha Wash 300 features CMY color mixing and 8+1 color wheel, two levels of frost, dimmer on dedicated channel and strobe.
PRG Distribution • 702.942.4772 • www.prg.com
When stage manager Michael Brunner worked on South Pacific in summer stock as a younger man, he had no idea that he would one day be tackling it full force at New York’s Lincoln Center. Now the 30-year theatre veteran is the production stage manager (PSM) for the first revival of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein show in 53 years at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre. And as he has noted — with a production that includes a large cast, prop plane and two real Navy trucks converted for stage use — the larger scale “makes a difference.” Critics and audiences are agreeing, along with celebrities like Robert Redford, Jane Alexander and David Hasselhoff, all of whom have come to check out the show.
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Lighting designer Abigail Rosen Holmes had a collaborator, of sorts, on her latest tour design for The Cure’s 4 Tour. Her collaborator had lots of insight to the material, since he wrote most of it himself.
Front man Robert Smith “is very involved in the design of the show,” Holmes said. She and Smith exchanged sketches of the lighting system, projection, and stage layout before arriving at the final design. Then they tossed around ideas for the individual songs.
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All load-ins are a testament to the beauty of cooperation and madness. This gets amplified when you’re putting up the set as they’re finishing the theatre.
“They’re kind of building around us,” says Jim Fedigan, production electrician for the install of Jersey Boys in the Jersey Boys Theatre at the Palazzo Las Vegas — Resort, Hotel, Casino. We’re standing on the lip of the stage looking at lights that have been hung onto truss, and then wrapped in plastic bags to protect them from construction dust, which is everywhere. Fedigan started the load-in in a theatre that was far from complete.
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Intense heat radiating from the streets and sidewalks outside of the Las Vegas Convention Center in June was no match for the cool gear at InfoComm 2008. True to form, LEDs, media servers and projection dominated the show, but not all exhibitors followed the formula. Some of them showed products to rig, power and network with LEDs, media servers and projection. Another dominant technology at the show was wireless DMX, with several dimming and control manufacturers offering it as an option as well as one or two automated lighting manufacturers.
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It’s not the sexiest part of the world of rock ‘n’ roll, but few can argue with its importance. After all, the band can fly around in their private jets or arrive with all the creature comforts they want in their custom coaches, but if the gear doesn’t arrive on time, safely and soundly, there’s not a lot that can happen.
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