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Learn One Console Top to Bottom

Stagnant lighting

So I’m working with another heavy metal artist this week. A band called Disturbed, a popular hard music act. They are extremely nice guys. If you were stopped at a red light and they got out of the car next to you, it could make you feel a tad uneasy about the impending future. But in real life, they are just good old boys who like to play loud music.

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Matchbox Twenty

Exile in America Tour

In 2000, Benoit Richard was working on the Matchbox Twenty Mad Season tour with lighting designer Marc Brickman. When Rob Thomas struck out on his own in 2005, he brought Richard along as the lighting designer. From his experiences with the band and its front man, Richard has compiled quite a knowledgebase about the band’s likes and dislikes. “For this tour,” he said, “our goal was to top what we had done in the past. When I showed my concept to the band, they were very excited. One band member (Paul Doucette) actually participates in the creation of the show cues with me and we worked well together this time around.

 

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Brian Friborg, Martin Professional

BUSINESS

Who: Brian Friborg, President, Martin Professional, Inc. (U.S. division)

What: Manufactures automated lighting, effects lighting, LEDs, fog machines and controllers which are used in all aspects of the entertainment industry. Martin also has a line of architectural luminaires for architectural lighting applications.

 

 

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Scenic Alternatives

In the live entertainment industry, certainly a very important aspect of a production is the set.  With today’s technology, there are many options for what to do with a stage from a scenic standpoint, including new ways to incorporate video elements into the stage.  

 

Horao, pictured here, is one of the manufacturers allowing designers to create LED arrays showing off dynamic graphics with depth.

 

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The Religion of Control, Part II – There Is No Hog but Hog

In Part I of this article (PLSN, April 2008, page 50) I presented an argument for console agnosticism.  Hopefully, by now you’ve had some time to think about the merits of being familiar with a wide range of consoles.  These might include application specific virtues, cost factors and even political or historical reasons. So, now that we’ve got that out of the way, I’m going to tell you why you should forget everything I’ve said and spend your every waking moment learning one console.

 

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VectorWorks Spotlight 2008

For many production and design professionals, the VectorWorks suite of computer aided drafting software has become an industry standard platform. A highly mature group of products, the VectorWorks family includes products that cater to architects, engineers, landscape artists and lighting designers.

 

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April 2008

 American DJ Mega Pixel LED

American DJ’s new Mega Pixel LED is a color bar with 384 LEDs that produce moving patterns and chases. It measures one meter long and has 128 red, 128 green and 128 blue 5mm LEDs arranged in 24 color banks of 16 LEDs each.

 

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Looking for Some New Old Stuff

Every month I see new products on the market. It seems the latest LED and media server technology is constantly outdating last year’s cool stuff. Automated lighting manufacturers are dueling to keep up with each other in terms of lumens while trying to come up with new features. This stuff is impressive, but it makes me wonder…“Why don’t people concentrate on making new cooler versions of existing gear?”

 

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