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The October 2017 Digital Edition

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October 2017

Metallica gear delivered to Antarctica

Rock-It Cargo

Everybody knows Rock-It Cargo as the leading freight forwarding and logistics services provider in concert touring. Over the last 40 years, the iconic company has joined that coveted list of corporations whose name is not only synonymous for the product it provides but works as both a verb and noun. Gotta ship something time sensitive, fragile, or out of the ordinary? Rock-It. Like the name of the Holding company that now owns them, Rock-It is and always has been, Rock Solid.

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Verite photo by Nicole Mago

Getting Visual for Vérité

Critics have had a hard time categorizing the music of Vérité, since the former Times Square Applebee’s waitress Kelsey Byrne burst onto the scene with a string of self-released YouTube hits like “Strange Enough.” Pop, indie, electro, alternative… it doesn’t matter what label anyone slaps on it, this quixotic mix of delicate, but fearless vocals, soaring melodies and synth flourishes bend and break musical barriers just as surely as it enthralls fans.

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An even wash is tough with the chimneys and overhanging structures.

Gourmet Lighting

The F Word, on Fox, Lit by Darran Webb

Although it appears to take place in a trendy, real-world restaurant, Fox’s hit food competition show, The F Word, starring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, is actually shot live and in real-time on a Hollywood soundstage. Its massive, four-wall set rises 28 feet above the floor and includes multiple dining alcoves, a large balcony, a semicircular bar and an open, fully functioning kitchen.

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Video was used on the main stage and side I-Mag screens at Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. Photos by Thomas Newton

Raising the Bar

AV Partners Provide Dazzling Visuals for Young Living’s International Grand Convention

The 2017 “Fulfill Your Destiny” International Grand Convention drew enthusiastic partners involved in sales for Young Living essential oils from all over the world. This year’s International Grand Convention, held June 14-17 at the Salt Palace and Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah, got a big production assist from Pixel- FLEX subsidiary Elite Multimedia.

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MIG tied into the stadim ribbon boards to run content, tooStadium ribbon boards ran content. Photo by Jeff Monuszko

Filling AT&T Stadium with Imagery for AdvoCare’s National Success School

Multi Image Group’s Visuals Ride the Big Screens in the Home of the Cowboys

The annual AdvoCare National Success School is more than just an event; it is a destination. Held at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX for the last five years — the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys — the annual training and sales conference focuses on celebrating the achievements of the company’s independent distributors, while also providing education, inspiration and motivation for continued successes.

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The choreography was conceived simultaneously with the projections.

Particle Dance

Daniil Simkin’s Falls the Shadow at the Guggenheim Museum Fuses Projection and Dance

For Falls The Shadow, a dance piece created for the Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process series and staged in the famed art repository itself, choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo and principal dancer/director Daniil Simkin teamed up with projection designer Dmitrij Simkin and costume designer Dior for an unusual convergence of fashion, technology and art. Four dancers had their movements captured by motion sensors, which generated 3D mapped visuals that were then projected back onto the floors and the ramp of the famed building.

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Nook Schoenfeld, Editor, PLSN

Ode to the Color Wheel

There used to be a time when you designed your show around two types of moving lights — hard edge and wash fixtures. I grew up in a time where the hard beams were from Vari-Lites or lekos and the wash came from pars. The only color changing we saw was from color wheels and color scrollers on conventional fixtures.

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Pyro extended 200 feet into the air above the roofless stage. Metallica 2017 tour photo by Steve Jennings.

Metallica WorldWired Tour

Metallica’s current “WorldWired Tour” is in support of the band’s Hard Wired… To Self-Destruct album, released last fall. We spoke with the band’s longtime lighting designer and director, Rob Koenig, about working with Dan Braun (show director and set designer) and the tour’s design and logistics he’s encountered for this massive production that’s been filling stadiums around the world. The tour began last year and included a run of stadium dates in North America this past summer. The band is continuing with a series of dates in the U.K. and Europe this fall and next spring.

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Configuring mixes within Catalyst

Outputs and Mixes

From the beginning of the creation of media server technology for live events, it has been common for a server to have only one or two video outputs. With the increase in popularity of LED walls, multiple projector projection blends, and 4K resolution content, however, the number of video outputs required from a server has grown and, as in the case of the d3, as many as 16 in a single d3 server are now needed in order to accommodate the demands of today’s visuals used in productions.

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Marcia Kapustin at videoworld in Brazil

Marcia Kapustin

Video Content Producer, Video Director and Lawyer-in-Training

Marcia Kapustin, principal of Kosher Pixels, is a video content producer and a video director, working extensively in concert touring. She has currently taken a hiatus from touring to get a law degree. She has worked with a variety of bands, most notably Paul McCartney and Metallica, since her first major tour as assistant video director for U2’s 1997-1998 PopMart tour.

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The software lets users invite others to participate in a given project as 'members' or 'guests,' encouraging visual collaboration.

Previz

I’m reminded of an old commercial that went something like, “ When EF Hutton talks…people listen.” The “EF Hutton” in this case is Laura Frank. When someone with the level of experience and accomplishments of Laura suggests that I spend some time getting to know a new workflow tool, I listen. She is at the top of her craft in the world of screen management, having directed screen content on some of the largest projects in television and live entertainment.

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