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Michael Zinman

Michael Zinman, Media Maestro

Recently, I had the opportunity to catch up with one of the hardest-working programmers in media servers, Michael Zinman, owner of The Zinman Co. (zinmanco.com). His work can be seen on a wide variety of television shows ranging from awards shows like ESPN’s Espy Awards to game shows like NBC’s Minute to Win It. In addition to designing content and programming for broadcasts, Zinman also is a prolific software designer, the creator of iPhone apps including In Your Back Pocket and Genielux. I wanted to find out more, so I tracked him down for a discussion on how the role of the Media Server Programmer & Designer has evolved.

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Color Fundamentals

Color is a powerful, if mercurial, tool. There are no absolutes with color. Blue or white do not exist. There are only relative degrees of color. Controlling the relative aspects of color should not require guesswork. A solid grasp of the basic properties of color perception is all we need.

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Resurrecting Caesar

I have just returned from my sixth trip to Las Vegas in less than a year. I never go there for fun, always for work (which is my kind of fun). I have been fortunate enough to work on quite a few projects in this town, and many of them have been permanent architectural installations. Some are still there, while others have changed into new stores or attractions and all previous lighting was removed. At any rate, one of my favorite things about working on a permanent installation is that, just like the name implies, the show lives on for a long time. On this last trip, I was there to freshen up an installation from 1997.

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Moore’s Law and the LED

I thought I was being clever when it occurred to me that the LED would at some point bring the lighting industry into the economic death grip of Moore’s Law, which, back in 1965, first postulated that the number of transistors that can be cost-effectively placed on an integrated circuit would double approximately every two years.

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Illustration by Andy Au

Architectural Lighting in My World

April 2 is National Autism Awareness Day. In case one doesn’t know, this disease is now an epidemic, and one in every 100 kids born is being diagnosed with this incurable condition. In honor of this day, the Autism society has requested that everyone turn on a blue light. Structures such as the Empire State Building and John Hancock Tower turned blue that weekend to raise awareness about this alarming statistic. The fact that we are using something so simple as a colored light to draw attention to a cause makes me happy. You can see these at www.lightitupblue.org.

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Staying (and Tweaking) the Course

Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome to PLSN. It is an honor to take the helm of one of the industry's most respected magazines and news sites. As the new editor, I want to introduce myself and tell you a little about what we have in store for you.

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The Belasco Theatre: Pushing Past 80, Gracefully

David Flad of Q1 Designs recently teamed with 4Wall Los Angeles to light the interior of downtown LA's Belasco Theatre. The lighting design and implementation was one of the final stages of the three-year renovation of the 80-year-old venue. Set in a central location not far from Staples Center, the Belasco was renovated so that it could host variety of entertainment events. The challenge for Flad and his team was in making sure the lighting was versatile enough to support a variety of needs.

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