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InfoComm11 DMZ: Squint Alert

InfoComm11: An Example of Why the Future is Red

This year’s InfoComm show, which took place in Orlando in June, was physically sectioned into categories, with color-coded carpeting to let you know when you wandered across the DMZ between, say, pro audio and digital signage. One section that didn’t need as much external delineation was the lighting section of the floor — you could pretty much see it from the Space Shuttle. And even if Sarah Palin couldn’t really see Russia from the Alaska coast, you got the sense that you could see Shanghai from Disney World. Those were the two big trends I noticed at InfoComm.

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Visualize Whirled Peas

A long time ago, I saw a car with a bumper sticker that said “visualize whirled peas.”  I like the statement because not only is it a play on words, but it also reminds me that I need to look very carefully at what I see.  Much in the same manner, as an automated lighting programmer, I must look carefully at my work when programming with a visualizer.  I don’t want to program a look for “world peace” and end up with lighting that looks more like “whirled peas!”  Lighting visualizers are wonderful tools, but the programmer and designer need to take many things into consideration when using the technology.

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Pre-Visualizing the Future

Lighting designers today have many virtual options for pre-programming a show well before rehearsals begin.  These tools can be used to create entire shows, without having to hang the real rig in a warehouse. Pre-visualization software has advanced tremendously in the last few years as computer hardware has improved.  Today’s pre-viz software programs take advantage of computer gaming technology as well. 3D rendering and ultra-fast video cards make virtual stages appear incredibly lifelike, and the environment can be viewed from all angles.

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LD Lee Rose lit the Daytime Emmy Awards

Metallica Making a Movie? Hartley in “Hell on Earth,” LDs and Emmys and More…

Metallica in Movie Rehearsals

Longtime Metallica LD John Broderick is in San Francisco with the band, building the show for a film to be shot “sometime” next year, he said. The 3D show is apparently too big to take on the road. Rehearsals are going for a few months, said to be a composite of all the best show gags in Metallica’s history of touring. Apart from that, the band plays upcoming shows in San Francisco, New York’s Yankee Stadium, Brazil’s Rock in Rio and India. “Nothing new about the designs there, just a continuation of their international stadium dates they do every year lately,” Broderick said.

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Illustration by Andy Au

Working on Tomorrow’s Gig Today

I’m starting to feel like the Lincoln Lawyer. The guy that works out of the back of his town car. Except that, on show days, I set up shop in the back of a tour bus. Or a hotel room if I’m lucky. Summer is my busiest time of year. While I am out running one tour, I am busy working on others. There are several steps to the process before I actually run the first show of a tour. First, I must submit an idea I have along with artistic renderings to get the gig. Then I must finish drawing the CAD drawings to get them to the lighting/set/video vendors. Follow that with some pre-programming of lighting cues on a visualizer, and then make it to the actual rehearsals.

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When Opportunity Calls…PICK IT UP

A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from a friend that I haven’t heard from in months. I was excited to hear from him since we’ve been trying to find time to head down to the Potomac River and do some fly fishing together. This wasn’t that call. He was in a “panic” to find a programmer for a show he had coming up in less than a week and asked if I could do it. Quickly looking over my schedule, I could fit it in. “PERFECT!” he said. Before I knew it, I committed to the gig. For this particular friend, I would walk through hell and back. I didn’t realize until later that I’d signed up for 14-hour days — after a week’s worth of travel.

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Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas 2011

Three Electric Nights in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS — The Electric Daisy Carnival’s dusk-to-dawn electronic music and arts extravaganza moved from Los Angeles to Las Vegas this summer, adding a third night to the schedule. AG Lighting, Felix Lighting and Visions Lighting served as primary lighting gear providers for the five-stage event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The total attendee count was near 250,000, far exceeding the 130,000 who attended the two-day event in Los Angeles last year — even topping Coachella’s 2011 turnout.

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