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LED video displays within the Tokyo Dome make use of Macroblock's technology.

Macroblock

Importance of LED Driver ICs Increases with Demand for Quality Screens

Macroblock, an LED driver IC (integrated circuit) manufacturer founded in June of 1999 in Hsinchu, Taiwan, is a maker of everything related to LED applications. Lately, they’ve been expanding into live events by creating products for LED displays that are getting noticed in a big way. They developed the world’s first 16-bit PWM (pulse-width modulation) embedded LED driver with patented S-PWM technology, which they showed off at a little show called the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.

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Beasts of Mayhem perform at Heavy Metal concert in Columbia Pictures' ‘Ghostbusters’. Photo courtesy Sony Pictures.

‘Ghostbusters’ Calls In LD Michael Baldassari for Heavy Metal Concert Scene

For the reboot version of Ghostbusters, which opened on July 15, 2016, director Paul Feig brought together a new team of Ghostbusters in Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. As ghosts and slime threaten to take over the city, they fight it with comic, and at times, chaotic efforts. When the team get their first call to capture an actual ghost it is at a heavy metal concert. For this key scene, the film’s director of photography, Robert Yeoman, ASC and gaffer John Vecchio knew they wanted a concert LD involved but needed someone that could mix the concert lighting with their film lighting. They called on LD Michael Baldassari, who has lit sequences for movies including Rock of Ages, Nine and Sex and the City 2.

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ChamSys MagicQ and other consoles now use the CITP protocol to display thumbnails of video content.

Lighting Console and Media Server Convergence

As media servers continue to develop features geared toward working with LED fixtures, lighting consoles are beginning to add in tools that address the unique challenges that programmers encounter while programming both lighting and video. As this convergence of lighting and video continues to evolve, the toolsets continue to evolve as well. Here’s a look at some of those tools.

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Robert Juliat Dalis 860

Robert Juliat Dalis 860

You probably recognize the name of the France-based lighting manufacturer, Robert Juliat, for their followspots. The company has now developed a purpose-built cyclorama wash light, the Dalis 860. (It’s spelled differently, but pronounced just like the city in Texas.) The fixture boasts a double row of 24 LEDs, an eight color mixing system and a new rigging method. Let’s dig a little deeper to see what makes this unit so innovative.

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You’ve Been Overridden!

Imagine the following scenario: An actor is on stage reciting a monologue. Suddenly, another actor steps in front of the first and begins speaking at a much louder rate, drowning out the first. Because the first actor is no longer contributing to what is happening on stage, he simply vanishes into thin air! This concept might sound crazy, but a similar situation plays out all the time on most automated lighting consoles. Some refer to this behavior as stomping or overriding, and it can be very confusing if not understood by the console programmer or operator.

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Coldplay at Wembley, photo by Paul Normandale

Normandale’s Head Full of Designs; Summer Tour News

While his design for Coldplay’s “A Head Full of Dreams” world tour made its way to North America, we heard from U.K. production designer/LD Paul Normandale, who was winging his way to Chicago to make sure the show was playing out as planned. When asked to describe his design in one sentence — as there’s no space to cover the entire production here — he says it’s “a cascading waterfall of vivid stars.”

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Illustration by Andy Au

Straight Outta Comp Tix

“It doesn’t hurt to ask.” Taken literally, this well-known phrase implies we should always ask for what we want. However, if you’re a professional and/or over the age of seven, you should know that if you ask the wrong way, it could damage your reputation and limit your ability to ever ask the same question again.

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