Skip to content

The August 2017 Digital Edition

Click Here to View the Digital Edition

August 2017

It's not always easy to take a 'bio break.' Photo of Hot 97 Summer Jam courtesy Stageline.

The Unmentionables

The set of skills one must master to work as an automated lighting programmer range from lighting knowledge to console syntax to organization, and much more. Most people are aware of the common abilities that a programmer must become proficient with in order to provide a great programming experience.

Read More »
Nook Schoenfeld, Editor, PLSN

Moved by a Show

Have you ever gone to a show, and been totally overwhelmed by your senses to the point that you were actually moved? I mean, seriously touched by a performance?

There are those rare moments in life where you are just overcome by emotions of happiness caused by witnessing something that was just so spectacular it left you posing a question to the patron standing next to you along the lines of “Holy Cow, did you just see what I just saw?” I count five times in my life.

Read More »
DTS Brick

DTS Brick

DTS is an Italian company that designs, engineers, manufactures and distributes lighting products and lighting effects for entertainment and architectural uses. This month, they sent me a light that is perfect for any architectural application, but also can be used in any theater, concert or live event as a wonderful source for splashing color.

Read More »
CB cabinets were hung in a circular array at Roe’s InfoComm 2017 booth.

ROE Creative Display CB3 Video Tile

ROE Creative Display has been manufacturing quality LED displays for over 10 years. They have six different product lines now, with each one geared towards filling the needs specified by different scenarios. In 2016 ROE Creative Display unveiled their new Carbon line of LED displays, an ultra-light series of tiles that incorporates their own ROE carbon fiber technology in the tiles, making them an ideal product for touring.

Read More »
A Look at Vidvox.net’s Open Source Hap Codecs, and How They Work

Hap Video Codecs Grow in Popularity

A Look at Vidvox.net’s Open Source Hap Codecs, and How They Work

I’ve written about codecs in the past, and generally speaking, they more or less do the same job: compress and decompress video frames. And with new ones being created continually to address specific performance-related needs, it is not reasonable to definitively say “this one is best” without taking into account external factors like hardware, application needs, etc.

Read More »
Jason Rudolph

Jason Rudolph

Entertainment is certainly in Jason Rudolph’s DNA. As the fourth-generation member of the industry, he carries on his family’s rich legacy into new areas of technology. Having started out as a lighting programmer, his mix of projects these days is 95 percent visuals and media-based. He has a busy career as a screens programmer and producer as well as, at times, a video technical manager on massive live shows and televised events like the Oscars and the Super Bowl Halftime Show, music festivals, corporate events, and occasional concert tours and architectural installations.

Read More »
The indoor stage at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium was one of many stages used for the event.

Colossal Clusterfest Goes Off Like Clockwork

Large Screen Video provides ultra-high-resolution video screens in the heart of San Francisco

Imagine that you’re in charge of the video screens and on-the-fly production for 50 acts in three days on eight stages—three outdoors and five indoors. Many acts arrive maybe half an hour before they go on and conduct shorthand explanations of what they want to happen behind them or alongside them as they perform. You and a crew of 30 work feverishly to keep things moving and pull off a flawless series of performances.

Read More »
ELO - Alone in the Universe, Wembley photo by Kris Goodman

ELO at Wembley Stadium

Jeff Lynne’s Spaceship Rises Again on Stageco Tower

His aviator shades, curly mop and beard may appear to be cryogenically frozen in time, but the renaissance of Jeff Lynne and his Electric Light Orchestra continues to move ever forward in popularity and — with assistance from Stageco — sheer physical size, as witnessed by 70,000 ecstatic fans at Wembley Stadium on June 24.

Read More »
Lighting truss articulates to create multiple looks for the numerous acts. Getty Images courtesy ARS

K-Love Awards

LabeLive and Atlanta Rigging Systems Raise the Roof at the Grand Ole Opry

The K-Love Fan Awards is the premiere “Ultimate fan experience” for the Christian Contemporary Music industry hosted at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN. The event is an opportunity for fans to see 22 of their favorite artists perform and accept awards on the historic main stage.

Read More »
All Photos by Joe Kenemore

A Complete Reset

Design Team Reboots Corporate Event Conventions with In-the-Round Cisco Live!

The purpose of this year’s Cisco Live! event, a multi-day educational event for IT and networking professionals staged within the Mandalay Bay Arena in Las Vegas in late June, was to introduce a radically new networking product. So it makes sense that, when the event’s organizers turned to Lightswitch and Go! Experience Design, they were hoping to provide attendees with an experience that also defied expectations.

Read More »
The curved LED display moved up and down to reveal company VIPs and musical acts. Photos courtesy Leo Events

Walmart Annual Shareholders Meeting

There’s nothing that comes close to the Annual Walmart Shareholders Meeting as employees gather from around the world in Fayetteville, Arkansas to celebrate all things Walmart, the most profitable retailer in the world since 1988. Founder Sam Walton held the first shareholders meeting in 1970 when he presided over five others at a coffee shop table in Bentonville, the company’s headquarters. Each year the event grew, and since 1994, it has been held on the University of Arkansas campus in Bud Walton Arena, home to the Razorbacks basketball teams. This year, Walmart associates and shareholders filled the arena.

Read More »