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Dataton WATCHPAX Media Player

Dataton WATCHPAX Media Player

The new WATCHPAX media player from Dataton, the creators of WATCHOUT multi-display software, is a plug-and-play standalone unit designed to be used in situations where you need content distributed to several locations but don’t need or want a computer at each location.

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Showline SL NITRO 510 from Philips Entertainment

Showline SL NITRO 510 from Philips Entertainment

Strobes — we all know what they are and how they work.  What can be sexy about them?  They are one trick ponies, designed to blind, wash and add some strobing effects to the look of a show.  For years we have relied on strobes that use a high-powered but conventional lamp as the light source. They are bright — blinding, in fact — but have the tendency to overheat and shut down for a period if used for a long duration of time.

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Whirlwind Power Link Portable Distro Series options

Whirlwind Power Link Portable Distro Series

With all of the various types of connectors and power requirements needed for different types of devices, power distro units for the live entertainment industry need to be flexible in their configuration. A standardized configuration will never be ideal for every situation. Whirlwind recognizes this, and has developed a new line of power distros aimed at getting the right power and connection type to your devices: the Power Link Series.

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What’s the Deal with Intensity?

Programming is largely about adjusting parameters and storing data. There are many different parameter types we adjust, but one is treated very differently than all the rest. Intensity is the only parameter that we can always say that we know the importance between high and low values. It is also the original parameter that was adjustable for lighting the stage.

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Illustration by Andy Au

Making It Affordable

Few shows are put on without a budget. In the 30 years I’ve been gigging, I may have only done a handful of them. And they were private shows for billionaires. Even giant shows like the Rolling Stones travel on a budget. Of course, ticket prices at any event are directly reflected by this budget. Thus, to put on the greatest show on the planet, you may have to charge exorbitant amounts. But that’s not saying you cannot design a large, original design within your budget constraints — you just have to figure out how.

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PLSN Editor Justin Lang

101 Resolutions, 1001 Days

Welcome to 2014! I trust that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and kicked off the New Year in style, working or not. Every New Year, people make resolutions, usually by picking one bad habit or quirk that they want to change. It makes sense: a New Year, a New You.

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Set designer John Lee Beatty and LD Japhy Weideman collaborated to bring Sharr White’s script to life.

The Snow Geese: Inside Looking Out

After years of focusing on her hit cable TV series Weeds, the talented Mary-Louise Parker returned to the Broadway stage last fall in The Snow Geese, a dramatic tale of a family fraying at the seams. While gathering for their annual shooting party to mark the start of hunting season, the family copes with the death of their patriarch, their dwindling financial resources, and rising tensions with a German couple staying with them during WWI, for which the eldest son is soon to be deployed overseas.

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Fleetwood Mac 2013 LIVE tour photo by Steve Jennings

Fleetwood Mac LIVE Tour

Fleetwood Mac’s 2013 Live tour, marking the 35th anniversary of the release of Rumours, combined the talents of original band members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie — the “Fleetwood” and “Mac” namesakes for the band’s formation in 1967 — with those of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, who joined the band in 1975.

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Level 2 Nightclub in Harrisburg, PA

Level 2 Nightclub in Harrisburg, PA

It does not take a large budget or ambitious design to revitalize a local lounge into a dynamic new space. It just takes ingenuity and know-how. A case in point: Ian Hoffer’s transformation of the interior look for the Level 2 nightclub in Harrisburg, PA. “It’s an upscale restaurant and lounge,” he tells PLSN. “But it just had gotten stale and needed a fresh look.”

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Grand Central Terminal architectural lighting installation

Marking 100 Years at Grand Central Terminal

To mark 100 years and celebrate the holiday season, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)’s Metro-North Railroad subsidiary and partner Toshiba contracted with designer Michiru Tanaka and Babylon, NY-based Bestek Lighting & Staging, Inc. to add a festive seasonal touch to the west side windows of the Main Concourse at Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Bestek handled engineering, custom hardware, installation labor, programming, technical direction and logistics for the project, and the company’s president, Van Allen Rice, served as project manager onsite.

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