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Lindsey Stirling tour photo by Steve Jennings

Lindsey Stirling: Lighting Live Shows for an Internet Sensation

Lindsey Stirling, 26, combines violin performances with dance and performance art, with live shows picking up the momentum generated by her YouTube channel (lindseystomp.com) and her appearances during the 2010 season of America’s Got Talent as the “Hip Hop Violinist.” Along with hip hop, Stirling performs genres ranging from classical music to dubstep. A major goal for LD Joel Reiff, who worked with lighting director Allison Siegel, was to meet the visual expectations set by the artist’s music video performances, seen online since lindseystomp.com got underway in 2007.

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Green Day 99 Revolutions Tour photo by Steve Jennings

Green Day 99 Revolutions Tour

Green Day released three albums in quick succession late last year — ¡Uno! (Sept. 21), ¡Dos! (Nov. 9) and ¡Tré! (Dec. 7) — along with a documentary chronicling the process — ¡Cuatro! — that premiered at the X Games in Aspen, CO earlier this year (now available on CD). After some preliminary promotional gigs, the band’s “99 Revolutions” tour supporting the album trilogy started in earnest with a North American leg in March and April 2013. The band then headed to Europe for shows slated from May through August 2013.

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For Wet Republic, MGM Grand in Las Vegas installed a curved LED screen measuring 38 by 10 feet in size.

A Curved LED Wall, Shining in the Sun

Names like Tiësto, Deaudmau5, Steve Aoki and Calvin Harris bring gatherings like the Electric Daisy Carnival, Ultra Music Festival and Coachella to mind, along with the Las Vegas nightclub scene — lots of late night revelers, partying to the beat to impressive, and sometimes blindingly bright, lighting and video displays. But what happens when you take the same big-name DJs and use them to draw partiers to the casino’s pool, in broad daylight? They can serve up the same throbbing basslines, but when the DJs are spinning in the sun, there’s no way a light show can deliver the same impact.

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MTV's 2013 Season Upfront at NYC's Beacon Theatre

Staging MTV’s 2013 Season Upfront at NYC’s Beacon Theatre

The way TV works has radically changed over the decades, from only three major networks and one screen per household to an explosion of options, not just with an expanded array of networks delivered via cable and satellite, but a whole new array of interactive media platforms as well. But one tradition that’s still holding steady, and keeping those on the live side of the entertainment industry busy, is the TV network “upfront” — elaborate corporate events designed to pique the interest of TV advertising buyers, the press and other VIPs in advance of the annual crop of new TV programming.

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How to Destroy Angels 2013 Tour photo by Steve Jennings

How to Destroy Angels 2013 Tour

Teams and projections don’t look as impressive when they pass through clear air, hence the profusion of hazers and foggers and theatrical scrims for visual impact.
For the 2013 tour for How to Destroy Angels, a band created by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, LD Roy Bennett worked with longtime NIN art director Rob Sheridan on various semi-transparent alternatives. The goal: to come up with something that would create a novel visual twist — surrounding the band members in a box-like shape, yet standing up to the rigors of a touring production.

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Active Production and Design's setup for a social event.

Active Production and Design Celebrates 20 Years

“Trying to build a business was tough, as we were competing against larger companies with a lot more gear,” Active Production & Design’s Matt Clouser says, as he reflects on his company’s 20th Anniversary. “We had to be aggressive, and that usually meant with cost. I think any of us that start a business will end up ‘giving shows away’ as they say in the business until we build it up enough to understand there are costs in a professional organization.”

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Iain Reed and Sydney Harbour Bridge

Inviting the Public to “Paint” the Bridge in Sydney

LD Iain Reed Turns Sydney Icon into Interactive Artwork
Vivid is the winter festival of light, music and ideas, held around the harbor in Sydney, Australia; for 2013, it ran from May 24-June 10. Winter down under is surprisingly scheduled when it is summer in the USA. Vivid came about in the dying days of the previous state government, and was such a success that it has returned each year, bigger and brighter. It brings people to the city in the down season.

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Black Armored Drone from Intuitive Aerial was designed to hoist RED digital cinema cameras.

The Drones are Coming (To a Movie Set Near You)

Every year in the spring, the worldwide broadcasting and post-production community gets together at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Las Vegas. The show has become a remarkable incubator of audio and video technology, and this year was no different — with thousands of exhibitors and over 90,000 attendees from 155 countries.
At NAB, I’m always on the lookout for something different — a new technology or a new production tool that’s destined to change the way we work, and possibly change the way that content is created. This year, it wasn’t an “app” or a software program, or even a new 4K camera. In fact, this year — it had rotors.

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ArKaos Stadium Server

ArKaos Stadium Server and MediaMaster Pro V3.1

Last year, ArKaos launched MediaMaster Pro 3.0 at PLASA 2012 and then recently continued their evolution with the announcement of a new division called ArKaos Pro at Prolight+Sound 2013. ArKaos Pro has been formed to focus on the specific needs of the large scale events and professional markets, and they have already released their first new server aimed at meeting the demands of this market head on: the Stadium Server. Not to be confused with the A30, this server is a standalone media server system designed for the professional lighting designer that targets the touring and large venue markets. Here’s a closer look under the hood of the new Stadium server from ArKaos.

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Convergence in lighting and video has gained momentum from software that lets users map video pixels to LED fixtures. Shown here, the LED mapper from ArKaos.

One Stage, Many Disciplines: Multimedia Convergence

When I was in high school, like many of us, I was in the AV club and did lighting for all of the school shows. I guess that would have been my first exposure to convergence. The idea of using multiple disciplines of technology to create an onstage experience started back in 1988 for me. Even then, we were attempting to use slide projectors for some of the images in our shows (pretty high tech for a school in a town with only one traffic light).

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connectCAD is a software add-on to the Vectorworks platform

Virtual Design: The Right Tools Make All the Difference

Over the last 20 years, advances in computer technology have benefited the entertainment industry. In particular, CAD programs have altered—for the better—how designers execute their ideas. But the benefits of digitizing workflows have changed more than just how we approach design. As a result, there’s never been a more exciting time for our industry. And as the growing availability of mature software tools continues to improve our design thinking, idea communication and the installation and execution of design concepts, we’ll continue to benefit by doing it more efficiently and accurately than ever before. When I reflect on this evolution, the journey has been remarkable. I’d like to share my own journey and how I arrived to this point in time today where we finally have at our fingertips the right tools for the job.

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Robe Robin MMX WashBeam in spot mode

Robe Robin MMX WashBeam

Robe’s Robin MMX WashBeam incorporates some of the same elements as Robe’s previously introduced MMX Spot, including the use of Philips Platinum 35 lamp as the light source. But unlike the Spot, the WashBeam gives users two different lens options — a plastic Beam lens and glass Fresnel Wash lens. Only one can be installed at a time. The fixture is smart enough to tell which one is currently being used, and that changes the functions of some of the features found inside along with the beam coming out the front.

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