Michael Smalley and Gabriel Fraboni Update Pitbull’s Show Looks
For Pitbull’s 2016 tour, Michael Smalley and Gabriel Fraboni collaborated on the production design, with Smalley once again serving as lighting designer, programmer and director. Smalley and Fraboni also shared video content duties for the show.
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35 Years of Camping and Festivities in Sturgis, SD
Motorcycle enthusiasts have been flocking to the small town of Sturgis, SD to attend one of the largest bike rallies in the world for years. The Sturgis rally got its start in in 1938 by a group of riders of the Indian motorcycle brand, who originally held stunts and races, including the Black Hills Classic, as the first original event was known. The rally was canceled due to gas rationing in WWII, but roared back in the postwar years and has since grown into a magnet for motorcycle riders from around the world. The 2016 rally was the 76th event.
The Republican and Democratic National Conventions, from the View of the Lighting Programmers
This summer saw the two major U.S. political parties hold their presidential national conventions in July — the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, OH at the Quicken Loans Arena, and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, PA at the Wells Fargo Center. Both had large multi-level stages, venue-covering lighting rigs, enormous video wall elements and audiences full of enthusiastic delegates. Lighting a convention is no small assignment when you consider that the live images broadcast globally are indelible moments in history. The lighting designer for the 2016 RNC was David Grill, principal of David Grill Associates, Inc. Previously lighting director on five consecutive conventions, this was his first as the lead lighting designer. In Philadelphia, returning for his sixth DNC was lighting designer Robert Dickinson, Principal of Full Flood, Inc.
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In 2015, the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles became the focus of a hostile bidding war that pitted the Nederlander Organization against Live Nation, AEG’s Goldenvoice and others for exclusive management rights. Offers and counter offers flowed as deadlines for the 2016 season grew closer. A deal was finally reached allowing the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks and management company SMG to create an “open door” policy for all promoters.
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When you ask Russell Armentrout about how he came to work for Performance Lighting over 28 years ago, he laughs and says, “I was in the right place at the wrong time.” At the time, he was involved in music, but as a drummer, not a lighting designer. When Armentrout joined Pete’s Lights, the company itself was only a few years old. The owner/founders, Douglas and Robert Peterson, formed the well-respected company in July 1985, boasting among their early clients tours with George Thorogood, George Benson and REO Speedwagon. Armentrout came up through the ranks at Pete’s Lights, today known as Performance Lighting, working as a lighting designer and senior crew chief. Today, he is president of the company. PLSN caught up with him recently to discuss his career in the industry and the core of what keeps Performance Lighting’s clients coming back.
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For the last two years, I’ve had the opportunity to be involved with the Rock in Rio festival in different roles, giving me a unique perspective on the festival both in the U.S. and Portugal. In May 2015, I managed the front of house control system for the Palco Mundo (World Stage) in Las Vegas and assisted incoming LDs with everything from setting up their consoles, connecting them to the main data distribution system, providing timecode connections, programming support, etc., etc. I even punted for a couple of the bands that traveled without an LD.
The first moving LED wash lights appeared on the scene about a dozen years ago. Upstaging lighting took a couple hundred Martin MAC 300s and had them retrofitted with RGB “Skittles” LEDs on the front, replacing the arc light source. LD Leroy Bennett requested such a fixture be made. Within a couple years, GLP came up with their series of Impression LED moving wash lights. Because these lights had no base and seemed to be able to just flip over in any direction at an incredibly fast rate, LDs started to refer to them as “pancake” style fixtures. These fixtures have undergone transformations and modifications, and it didn’t take long for them to start selling like hotcakes. Today, every major manufacturer offers at least one fixture that fits within this category. Each fixture has at least one unique aspect or feature that separates them from the rest. Look here for who’s offering what this year.
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“Danny O’Bryen is a visionary with a promoter’s mind,” says Mark Haney, video director and Parnelli Board of Advisors member. “He saw video as a way forward and a way to bring more value to the ticket buyer. He saw that this was the future and is really one of the biggest innovators in our field.” O’Bryen of Screenworks will receive the 2016 Parnelli Visionary Award Oct. 22, at the Parnelli Awards gala in Las Vegas. He’s the ninth live event professional to receive this annual award for career achievement, and the first from the video side of the industry.
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Here’s a look at the regional finalists in the 2016 Hometown Hero Lighting Company of the Year award.
There are many ways to judge the vitality of our industry — ticket sales, manufacturer’s bottom line, new hires. But from where we’re sitting, it seems especially telling that, for the first time in a long time, there are so many new companies being honored for their service in their region. Not that these are “new” companies per se — heck, one has been around since 1983. But it’s a dynamic, interesting bunch, and we’re pleased to present them to here. Let’s meet the regional winners!
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“Trust. Money.” Boy, could that title be taken a few different ways. Money and trust have been odd bedfellows practically since currency was invented. Trust has been around a whole lot longer, but as soon as money entered the world, trust started getting in short supply. Why are these two so inextricably intertwined? Why do people spend a week’s worth of income on a concert ticket and just trust that it’s going to be worth it?
Today, we’re not going to look at the latest in whiz-bang technology or the coolest LED fixture on the market, but rather at the technological building blocks of a good show — networking and data distribution hardware from TMB. As our show networks get larger and more complicated, the need for sophisticated and reliable networking technology grows ever more important.
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Every once in a while, a product hits the scene that gets a lighting designer’s blood pumping. That’s because it’s a product that nobody else has even thought of making and it’s fresh and, for lack of a better description, “really cool.” Such is the case with the Medusa, a four-headed beast of a fixture from Mega-Lite that is made to provide eye candy and dazzling effects. Picture a Lazy Susan on your dining room table. Remove the food items and put small moving head beam lights spaced evenly across the outside — four individually controlled fixtures that have an incredibly bright light source (Philips Platinum 5R bulb). Then you spin the Lazy Susan. You get the idea.
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